Performance Report on Sustainable Development April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009

Executive Summary

This report outlines the Agency's performance against commitments of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Sustainable Development (SD) Strategy 2007-2010. It covers the period from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009.

The Strategy is driven by an SD National Action Plan of 16 targets that are supported by 65 activities, pursuing the following goals:

Goal 1: Reduce the effects of our operations on land, air, and water.
Goal 2: Our programs demonstrate sustainable service delivery.
Goal 3: All employees apply sustainable development in their job.
Goal 4: Modern systems that support and maintain sustainable development.

Nine Environmental Management Programs (EMPs) addressing the environmental issues of energy conservation, fleet, hazardous waste, halocarbons, outside emissions, paper, procurement, solid waste, and storage tanks support the delivery of Goal 1 of the strategy.

During the period, the Agency completed 88% of the planned work on 30 activities of the SD National Action Plan, and met 71% of scheduled targets of the EMPs. The performance highlights by goal are as follows:

Goal 1 Highlights

In diverting the amount of solid waste from CRA facilities that go into landfill, the Agency expanded implementation of the No Waste program. As such, 84% of CRA employees now have access to the program - exceeding the target of 75% Footnote 1. During the period, the number of sheets of office paper used per employee fell to 5,385 sheets - exceedingthe SD Strategy target of 5,640 sheets per employee. In promoting an environmentally sustainable fleet, the Agency increased the percentage of hybrids and alternative fuels vehicles in its 94-vehicle fleet to 43%. This exceeds the legal requirement to acquire alternative fuel vehicles when cost-effective and operationally feasible.

Goal 2 Highlights

We included sustainable development provisions Footnote 2 in 70% of partnership agreements through Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) and Letters of Intent (LOIs). We continued to apply the sustainable development lens to specific program results. For example, we determined that the use of electronic tax filing for the Individual (T1) tax returns saved an estimated 557 million sheets of paper in the 2008 tax year.

Goal 3 Highlights

Management continued to demonstrate strong support for the SD program with a high of 97% of members within the Executive Cadre (ECs); and 71% of members of the Management Group (MGs) including SD commitments/ SD measurement criteria in their performance agreements. The Sustainable Development Innovation Fund (SDIF) Footnote 3 financed an additional five employee-driven projects during the period; and best practices identified from the assessment of the Fund will be used to promote expansion of successful initiatives within the Agency.

Goal 4 Highlights

In improving the systems that manage SD at the CRA, we launched the web-based Performance Reporting (PR) Tool for SD. The Tool represents a single repository for SD performance information, and provides members of the SD Network with an efficient way of accessing and reporting on their branch and regional SD performance. The SD Division achieved a service level standard of 98% when responding to SD enquires through the national SD mailbox; and received an increased overall approval rating of 82% for services provided to the Agency's SD Network.

Internally, the SD Program maintained the highest performance rating of "strong" from the CRA Board of Management for the reliability of the SD program's reporting frameworks. Externally, the CRA maintained compliance with all applicable environmental legislation and regulations, and continued to contribute to the environmental and SD priorities of the Government of Canada.

New Federal Directions for Sustainable Development Accountability

In June 2008, the new Federal Sustainable Development Act became law. The intent of the Act isto make sustainable development decision-making more transparent and accountable by shifting SD accountabilities from parallel planning and reporting processes, into the mainstream of government planning and reporting processes. One of the main implications is that departments and agencies will no longer be required to table stand-alone SD strategies and reports.

Resulting from the Act, a federal SD strategy is to be tabled in Parliament by June 2010, after which the CRA - like other departments and agencies - will have one year within which to table its own SD strategy through its Report on Plans and Priorities. The Agency will continue to participate in interdepartmental consultations towards tabling an updated CRA SD strategy by June 2011.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Given year-two results, the CRA has made appreciable progress towards achieving the targets of SD Strategy 2007-2010. At the two-thirds milestone, one target has already been exceeded (employee office paper use), while all others are in progress. It is however evident that due to issues of timing and shifting federal directions, some targets will likely not be met as scheduled. For those targets, work will continue into the following period.

The focus of the SD Program for 2009-2010 will be to complete all activities supporting the targets of CRA SD Strategy 2007-2010; and to position the CRA to respond to the requirements of the new Federal Sustainable Development Act (2008).


Footnotes

[Footnote 1]
Solid waste diversion rates will be measured in 2009-2010.

[Footnote 2]
SD criteria promote systemic decision-making by examining decisions from environmental, social and economic perspectives.

[Footnote 3]
An amount of $50,000 was allocated to finance project proposals that promote corporate efficiency, while supporting sustainable development objectives.

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