Performance Report on Sustainable Development April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010
4.0 Other Sustainable Development Program Results
4.1 CRA Contribution to Government-wide SD Priorities
CRA SD Strategy 2007-2010 also supports the Government of Canada's priorities for SD, as outlined in the June 2006 document, Coordinating the Fourth Round of Departmental Sustainable Development Strategies. Our SD National Action Plan 2007-2010 identified 15 activities that contribute directly to the priorities established in the coordinating document. Of the 15 activities, we completed 8 activities - progress on the remaining 7 activities was approximately 70%. See Appendix B for details.
4.2 New Federal Directions for Sustainable Development Accountability
The Federal Sustainable Development Act (2008)
The CRA continued interdepartmental consultations, much of which focused on departmental preparations to comply with the newFederal Sustainable Development Act that became law in June 2008. Among other things, the Act requires that a Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) be tabled in Parliament by October 2010. Within one year of the tabling of the FSDS, departments and agencies are required to table their respective SD strategies as part of their Report on Plans and Priorities (RPPs). Accordingly, progress on SD strategy commitments will be accounted for through Departmental Performance Reports (DPRs).
The intent of the Act is to shift SD accountabilities from parallel planning and reporting processes, to the mainstream of government planning and reporting processes. SD accountabilities would be identified in RPPs - through the Main Estimates process - and reported on through DPRs. The main implication is that from a planning and reporting perspective, departments and agencies are no longer legislatively bound to table stand-alone SD strategies and reports. However, given that the FSDS partially implicates the CRA SD Program, the CRA, like other departments will prepare a detailed internal SD strategy to guide implementation of its SD Program. We will also continue to publish detailed annual SD reports to account for our complete performance on SD.
4.3 SD Program Costs and Benefits
During the period, the Agency invested approximately $1.68 million in direct costs (personnel and operating) for the SD Division in HQ and regional offices to implement the SD program (see Table 2).
Resource Type | |||
---|---|---|---|
Expenditure Area | Salary | O&M | Total |
Headquarters | 1,040 | 122 | 1,162 |
Regions | 387 | 80 | 467 |
SD Innovation Fund | -- | 50 | 50 |
Total | 1,427 | 252 | 1,679 |
Many of the initiatives in the CRA SD Strategy, while aimed at environmental improvement, have the added benefit of improving the Agency's operational efficiency, and offer benefits to other areas of society. Examples include:
- Reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through improved fleet fuel efficiency and reduced fuel expenditures;
- The CRA No Waste program helps to extend the life of municipal landfills and contributes to local recycling programs; and
- Increased use of electronic forms and internal paper reduction initiatives which reduced the Agency's paper costs.
An example where measurable results have been achieved is the Agency's use of office paper. Table 3 shows that since the implementation of our Environmental Management Program (EMP) for Paper, we have significantly reduced the amount of paper used per employee, as well as total expenditures on office paper.
Fiscal Year | Average Consumption in Sheets per FTE | Office Paper Expenditures |
---|---|---|
2002-2003 | 7,011 | $2.43 million |
2003-2004 | 7,399 | $2.42 million |
2004-2005 | 7,234 | $1.81 million |
2005-2006 | 6,407 | $1.56 million |
2006-2007 | 5,761 | $1.45 million |
2007-2008 | 5,721 | $1.48 million |
2008-2009 | 5,385 | $1.46 million |
2009-2010 | 5,147 | $1.41 million |
We substantially reduced the amount of paper used to deliver the Individual (T1) tax program through the implementation of online tax filing options. While offering Canadians enhanced convenience and efficiency, these programs reduce the Agency's environmental footprint. From 1990 to 2009, the use of electronic filing (EFILE and NETFILE) for the Individual tax program has resulted in the following paper savings:
- Sheets saved related to T1 returns: 1.7 billion sheets
- Sheets saved related to tax packages: 3.6 billion sheets
- Total savings: 5.3 billion sheets
This is equivalent to savings of:
- Paper: 23,320 tonnes - a pile 530 km high, if stacked;
- Wood: 80,842 tonnes - the equivalent of about 616,400 trees;
- Energy: 9.99 billion BTUs - the equivalent to heating about 10,843 homes/year;
- GHGs: 66,348 tonnes - the equivalent to emissions from about 13,282 cars/year;
- Wastewater: 1.87 billion litres - the equivalent volume of about 742 swimming pools;
- Solid waste: 26,566 tonnes - the equivalent of about 2,091 full garbage trucks.[Footnote 2]
4.4 SD Program Assessment
The CRA Board of Management assessed the Agency's performance in terms of SD - specifically examining whether the Agency follows appropriate processes to ensure that SD is embedded in the way we do business. The SD Program maintained the highest performance rating of "strong" from The Board.
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