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Section II:Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

Benefit to Canadians

Our aim is to ensure that taxpayers, businesses, and registrants are provided with the tools, assistance, and information needed to voluntarily comply with their tax obligations. In addition, we clarify the interpretation of the tax laws to protect Canada's revenue base.

Planned Spending by Program Activity

Program Activity — Expected Results and Measures

Our Priorities

Building trust to promote compliance

Through outreach, we deliver the information and assistance that taxpayers need to meet their obligations and obtain the benefits to which they may be entitled. To make sure that our outreach events reach the most appropriate audience, we target specific groups such as seniors, new Canadians, persons with disabilities, small business, new business, charities, and high-risk sectors, and provide specific information that meets their needs.

We identify segments and topics on which to focus our outreach activities through various means, such as public opinion research, demographic analysis, business trends, environmental scans, and compliance risk analyses. We do this to ensure that we respond effectively to changing demographics and economic trends and to address areas of non-compliance or compliance risk.

We will strengthen outreach

We will strengthen outreach by developing an integrated CRA outreach strategy which will set the framework for all CRA outreach activities. Through the implementation of this strategy, we will ensure a co-ordinated approach to outreach, with consistent messaging tailored to meet specific needs. We will also partner with other government agencies and departments, provinces, and associations to expand the reach of our activities, using advanced technology like webinars to maximize effectiveness.

Specific initiatives include the development of a taxpayer segmentation model to target specific groups with particular messages. We will also explore ways to improve voluntary compliance through an enhanced understanding of responsible citizenship. We will consider alternative delivery models and maximize the use of appropriate partners.

The provision of timely and accessible information regarding obligations and entitlements is fundamental to a self-assessment tax system. Canadians are using various means (Internet, telephone, in person, in writing) to satisfy their information needs. We want to encourage taxpayers to migrate to the more affordable self-serve channels, with agent assistance readily available when required.

We manage the convergence of channels to ensure the consistency of messaging, and that taxpayers trying to self-serve have timely access to agent assistance through applications such as Smartlinks.

Our 1-800 telephone networks provide help and information to taxpayers through automated and agent-assisted services. These networks are managed in real time to balance call volumes across the country and to provide maximum accessibility. Callers using the automated service can obtain general information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The CRA Web site is continually updated to provide current, relevant information. Both the content and structure of our Web site are fine-tuned based on the results of usability testing to ensure client needs are being met.

Over the planning period, we will expand our research and analysis to better understand clients' information needs and expectations. We will also explore best practices and emerging technology in the taxpayer services arena. This will help enhance the design and development of our products and services. It will also be complemented by an enhanced quality assurance regime.

We will develop training and job aids for agents to improve their efficiency

Our enquiries and information services will develop training and job aids for agents to help them respond efficiently to increasingly complex enquiries. Our development of multimedia training products and new applications that link agents' desktops to appropriate reference material will reduce the time agents need to research certain topics. It will also enable them to answer telephone enquiries more effectively and efficiently in an environment of continually changing legislation.

The telephone channel remains the most popular way for taxpayers to contact us. We will meet our increased performance targets for caller accessibility and our service standards for timeliness. In addition, data gathered under the quality assurance program will serve to support and strengthen the quality and accuracy of our responses to enquiries, as well as to permit the identification of agent training needs, procedural and accuracy trends, and product and service gaps.

The program initiatives we will pursue over the planning period are listed in the following table.

Priority Initiatives

Our Priorities

Strengthening service to make compliance easier

To enhance the Charities Program, we will ensure that registered charities and applicants for registered status, have access to high-quality application and enquiries processes. We will implement new service standards, follow through on recommendations of the Small and Rural Charities Initiative, and use electronic service options such as webcasts and webinars.

We will continue to improve the administration of the Canada Pension Plan/Employment Insurance (CPP/EI) Rulings Program through management and technological innovations and the building of partnerships.

An increasing number of requests for CPP/EI rulings coming from within the Agency are being converted to electronic format. It is being facilitated by the Referral Allocation and Distribution System (RADS), a locally developed solution that allows rulings to be requested electronically and distributed nationally. RADS is modernizing the program by providing regional rulings staff and other internal stakeholders a more efficient, secure method to refer, respond to, and move ruling requests across the regions. The CPP/EI Rulings Division will continue to develop and improve policies, procedures and outreach information, to ensure that regional staff have the required tools to better serve Canadians and achieve program objectives.

We will implement a risk-based approach to registered plans to streamline the registration process, and increase audit coverage through random and targeted audits. We will also upgrade our toll-free enquiries line for registered plans, enhance information available on our Web site, and improve outreach activities and electronic service offerings.

We will work to improve our performance in issuing advance income tax rulings within an average of 60 days.

We will expand our collaboration with provincial and territorial governments

To improve the overall regulatory environment, we also intend to expand our collaboration with provincial and territorial governments. We will focus our efforts on inter-provincial tax avoidance to address the techniques used by corporations to shift income between provinces and territories.

Making Non-Compliance More Difficult

We deal with the challenges of non-compliance by continuing to enhance the effectiveness of our excise programs. In co-operation with other federal government organizations, we will maintain and enhance compliance with Canada's tobacco laws and support our partners as they address the issue of contraband tobacco.

During the planning period, we will maintain our efforts to implement an enhanced tobacco stamping regime. To this effect, we will continue to consult with the tobacco industry (manufacturers and importers), provincial and territorial governments, and other federal departments and agencies. We will work closely with the Department of Finance Canada officials to complete the necessary legislative amendments for the new regime, including the drafting of supporting regulatory amendments and guidelines. Should these steps proceed according to our expectations, the CRA will establish and implement the new stamping regime to ensure, within reasonable timelines, that 100% of all tobacco products manufactured and imported into Canada bear the new stamp. At the same time, we will encourage provinces and territories to adopt the new stamping regime.

Registered charities in Canada are tax-exempt and can issue charitable donation receipts to donors. To maintain these privileges, registered charities must satisfy an annual disbursement quota requirement, file a registered charity information return and financial statements, and operate within the parameters of the Income Tax Act. The focus of our Charities Program will be to help protect the charitable sector and to address identified non-compliance in a timely manner.

We will also administer the Charities Registration (Security Information) Act, which supports Canada's national security agenda and international obligations to counter terrorism.

We will implement program enhancements to the Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) program by developing new, technologically enhanced risk assessment methods of detecting high risk files. Furthermore, we will put an audit program in place to identify abusive arrangements using TFSAs. We will also enhance information relating to TFSAs available on our Web site and improve outreach activities to our clients.

The program initiatives we will pursue over the planning period are listed in the following table.

Priority Initiatives

Benefit to Canadians

Our aim is to deliver efficient and correct assessing of individual, business, trust, and information returns and timely payment processing, thereby promoting voluntary compliance and contributing to the protection of Canada's revenue base.

Planned Spending by Program Activity

Program Activity — Expected Results and Measures

Our Priorities

Strengthening service to make compliance easier

We will continue to promote integrated and accessible channels, while encouraging and enabling more individuals and businesses to conduct their tax affairs electronically. We have already made significant investments in upgrades to ensure that many of our systems are state-of-the-art, and we will allocate additional resources to support further modernization of our remaining core systems. We will enhance our electronic services and strengthen our secure online channel.

We will enhance our electronic services to make them more user-friendly

Changes will be made to My Account, that will help make the service more user friendly for a broader range of Canadians. The redesign will also lay the groundwork to accommodate future growth of the My Account service. My Business Account will be further enhanced in consultation with users and other external stakeholders.

We will begin to display TFSA information on notices of assessment

Beginning in 2009, tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) allowed Canadians to set money aside in qualifying investment vehicles and watch the savings grow tax-free. In 2010, we will provide TFSA contribution room on the notice of assessment for eligible individuals who file an income tax return and enhance My Account to access TFSA information online.

We will optimize program efficiency and accurate assessment of tax through enhancement and integration of common data systems and remove specific barriers and exclusions for electronic filing.

We will augment our processing systems, capture information returns and slips previously not supported, accept a higher number of information slips electronically, and provide upfront validation of data submitted. This will enable us to improve services for taxpayers, facilitate compliance, and reduce the need for post-filing contact.

We will work with stakeholders to increase the use of e-services and the use of the Business Number as a common identifier for business and government at all levels. The 2009 implementation of harmonized corporate tax returns for Ontario corporations will deliver enormous service benefits for businesses and further promote the take-up of electronic filing.

Making Non-Compliance More Difficult

We will enhance our ability to address non-compliance by continuing to improve our post-assessment review programs. We will do this through effective use of third-party information and refining risk assessment capabilities. We will focus on discrepancies, correcting errors, validating claims, and helping individuals and businesses comply in areas of new legislation. We will implement all required federal, provincial, and territorial legislative changes, giving effect to the tax agendas of governments across Canada and promoting efficiency in delivery

The program initiatives we will pursue over the planning period are listed in the following table.

Priority Initiatives

Benefit to Canadians

Our aim is to promote and enforce compliance with Canada's tax laws for filing, withholding, registering, remitting and debt obligations, including those amounts collected or withheld in trust on behalf of the Government of Canada, as well as the provinces, the territories, and certain First Nations governments.

Planned Spending by Program Activity

Program Activity — Expected Results and Measures

Our Priorities

Making Non-Compliance More Difficult

The majority of Canadians comply with tax laws and their obligations. However, we continue to see growth in tax debt as a result of those taxpayers and businesses who fail to meet their tax obligations. With this in mind, we will continue to enhance our strategies to resolve debt while also developing strategies to deter future arrears.

In the past, our primary focus has been on managing the level of tax debt. As seen in other tax administrations around the world, increasing debt inventories are a reality of our operating environment and are influenced by several variables that are outside of our control, such as economic conditions and growth in the number of strategic bankruptcies. For this reason, we have adopted a more strategic approach to enhance how we manage payment non-compliance. Our anticipated result is that an increased number of taxpayers will pay when required, which in turn will contribute to the protection of Canada's revenue base.

Our strategies to manage our accounts receivable portfolio will focus on two distinct goals — to ensure that debt is paid at the time of assessment and to effectively manage the debt after it occurs. Our key activities will align with each goal to ensure that we are proactively addressing each one. We will also ensure that effective horizontal partnerships are formed within the Agency to address issues such as debts arising from Agency compliance activities.

We will develop and implement our payment non-compliance action plan

Over the planning period, we will develop and implement our payment non-compliance action plan in response to the risk identified in the CRA Corporate Risk Inventory. The plan focuses both on opportunities to prevent debts from occurring and proactively assisting taxpayers in meeting their obligations in a timely manner.

While substantial progress has been made to enhance our collection enforcement capabilities, further work is needed. For the purposes of the payment non-compliance initiative, however, we are turning our attention to the earlier stages of the collection continuum in order to have positive impacts on our receivables. Accordingly, our goals will entail looking at opportunities to deter payment non-compliance by preventing debts from arising and by encouraging and proactively assisting taxpayers to meet their obligations in a timely and equitable fashion. Efforts to realize some of these goals will also result in substantial benefits in other areas of the collections continuum.

Another key activity that we will undertake is the implementation of our National workload allocation project for our non face-to-face workload. This will facilitate effective inventory management and prioritization to optimize debt management resources and maximize tax debt collections.

We will also continue to develop tailored strategies to address specific segments of the existing inventory. For example, an industry-based study has identified areas that present a higher degree of risk and we are now developing an industry-based collection plan. Additionally, we will implement Phase II of our insolvency strategy to identify high-risk strategic bankruptcies and help eliminate bad debt as soon as possible.

The CRA is also a service provider for other government departments for the recovery of outstanding receivables. For example, the CRA collects Employment Insurance overpayments and defaulted Canada Student Loans on behalf of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. We will manage other government debt effectively meeting commitments to clients and being responsive to new and existing program requirements.

We will improve the detection of non-compliance activities for employers and GST/HST registrants

We will improve the detection of remittance, filing, and withholding non-compliance for employers and GST/HST registrants. The CRA will also continue to partner with stakeholders to reduce the withholding, remitting, and reporting burden for small businesses.

The creation and implementation of the Trust Compliance National Inventory will allow more efficient and effective resolution of employer non-compliance. This strategy will also eliminate restrictive geographic boundaries.

The Performance Management Framework is the foundation of how we measure our success. We will improve this framework to better reflect the work we do, and demonstrate our results.

The CRA has also developed strategies that focus on improving non-compliance in the areas of GST/HST filings and registrations, and personal and corporate income tax filings. We will use new risk assessment and data mining techniques to improve the detection of filing and registration non-compliance. Our focus on maintaining and enhancing the non-filer/non-registrant component of the underground economy will target higher-risk industries.

The program initiatives we will pursue over the planning period are listed in the following table.

Priority Initiatives

Benefit to Canadians

Our aim is to help protect Canada's tax revenue through a range of verification, audit, and enforcement activities, as well as through education. Our activities focus on the accuracy and completeness with which taxpayers determine their tax liability.

Planned Spending by Program Activity

Program Activity — Expected Results and Measures

Our Priorities

Building trust to promote compliance

We will use communications as a compliance tool to inform taxpayers about the risks of non-compliance and the results of compliance actions that the CRA has undertaken. Such communication helps to enhance the public's trust that the CRA is actively protecting Canada's tax base.

Tax intermediaries are an integral part of Canada's tax system. The majority perform a valuable role in explaining complex tax laws to their clients by helping them to plan their tax affairs in a way that legitimately minimizes taxes owing, while taking advantage of the social and economic incentive programs delivered by the tax system. We are aware that some intermediaries encourage non-compliance. In such instances, the CRA will address those cases quickly and effectively.

We will enhance the administration of the Voluntary Disclosures Program by updating our policies and procedures, improving training and further monitoring to ensure that the administration of the program is consistent across the country.

Strengthening service to make compliance easier

We will enhance the administration of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Program to ease access to the program, improve its consistency and predictability, and enhance the quality of the claims process.

Making Non-Compliance More Difficult

We are working to address high-risk areas, such as aggressive tax planning, the underground economy, and GST/HST. We are enhancing our risk profiling activities, including the development of risk profiles for specific taxpayer segments. We are also taking measures to address other compliance issues, such as the concerns of provinces and territories about interprovincial tax avoidance and provincial/territorial income allocation.

We will enhance our risk profiling activities, compliance research, and risk assessment by linking them to Agency compliance priorities

We will enhance our risk profiling activities by expanding the use of information gained at the local, regional, national, and international levels. We will further strengthen compliance research and risk assessment by linking our research agenda to Agency compliance priorities to allow us to gather intelligence and identify risk in support of business planning, resource allocation, and program development.

Compliance System Redesign (CSR) is a major business transformation initiative designed to enhance our capacity to manage compliance programs more effectively. CSR provides a modern business solution that will increase our ability to target non-compliance and select appropriate files for audit by improving our risk assessment, workload selection, and audit tools and processes.

The program initiatives we will pursue over the planning period are listed in the following table.

Priority Initiatives

Benefit to Canadians

Our commitment is to fairness, and our aim is to provide a timely redress process whereby taxpayers can dispute CRA decisions regarding their income tax, commodity tax, and CPP/EI files, or register their complaints about the services they have received from the CRA.

Planned Spending by Program Activity

Program Activity — Expected Results and Measures

Our Priorities

Building trust to promote compliance

When taxpayers disagree with our decisions, we provide them with the opportunity for redress. We will review our processes with a view to improving productivity, recognizing the need to provide a correct decision in all cases. This is particularly challenging in the current appeals environment characterized by the high volume of objections filed by taxpayers involved in aggressive tax planning schemes. We will also seek opportunities to enhance our online Appeals services to meet taxpayer demand.

The CRA Service Complaints, Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and Taxpayers' Ombudsman initiatives were introduced to provide taxpayers with an additional level of confidence in the CRA's service. We will support these initiatives by resolving service-level complaints and providing a link between the taxpayer and the appropriate CRA function or the Taxpayers' Ombudsman. The Ombudsman operates independently and at arm's length from the management of the CRA and reports directly to and is accountable to the Minister of National Revenue.

We will strengthen the management of service- related complaints

We will strengthen the CRA's management of service-related complaints by developing a Web portal for use by our Service Complaints officers. The tool will enable staff to identify and analyze service-related complaint issues and take corrective measures to rectify them. This will improve the horizontal management of issues.

We will support the redesigned taxpayer relief registry system with a training course and user guide. The redesigned system has enabled us to better manage the taxpayer relief provisions workload and improve our reporting and analysis capabilities.

We will complete the smooth transition for the successful implementation of the Corporate Tax Administration for Ontario initiative as it affects appeals activities. This will be achieved through the seamless integration of objection and appeals activities and result in a reduction in the compliance burden for Ontario corporations.

We will address staffing challenges

We will address Appeals Branch staffing challenges by enhancing the relatively specialized appeals function and moving the workload between offices.

The program initiatives we will pursue over the planning period are listed in the following table.

Priority Initiatives

Benefit to Canadians

Our aim is to ensure that timely and correct benefit payments are issued to eligible families and individuals through effective service delivery. In addition, we aim to reduce the overall cost of government through efficiencies obtained by reduced duplication in administration and delivery functions.

Planned Spending by Program Activity

Program Activity — Expected Results and Measures

Our Priorities

Making it Easier to Receive the Right Social Benefits

The CRA is a leader in providing tax and benefits services and we continually explore ways to improve service to Canadians. Working within a dynamic framework, we welcome new opportunities for partnerships with interested client governments to enable reliable single-window service delivery.

As more Canadian households access the Internet each year, we will further enhance and promote self-service options to reduce costs and provide timely and efficient taxpayer service. We will enhance My Account for Benefits — improving its presentation, making it easier to navigate, and adding account information for the new harmonized sales tax credits for Ontario and British Columbia.

We will deliver three new benefit programs to Ontario and British Columbia

We will deliver three new benefit programs introduced as a result of Ontario's and British Columbia's decisions to harmonize their sales tax. These programs are the Ontario Sales Tax Transition Benefit, the Ontario Sales Tax Credit, and the British Columbia Harmonized Sales Tax Credit. We have launched the Automated Benefits Application service, which integrated the Canada Child Tax Benefit application with provincial and territorial birth registration processes, in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island. We will work with other provinces and territories to expand this service over the next few years.

Our platform allows us to deliver programs and services for federal, provincial, and territorial government clients. We manage business growth and partnerships to provide the most effective program and service delivery possible, reducing the number of contacts that individuals must make to update program information, benefiting both government clients and recipients. The overall success of our program and service delivery is reflected in our growing number of government clients.

Providing timely and accurate payments to all our recipients is our first priority. To ensure that service levels will be met in the future, we are making additional investments in the modernization of our systems and working on initiatives to ensure that our delivery infrastructure will support core business and growth.

We will strengthen outreach by developing an integrated strategy

Through outreach, we assist benefit recipients in meeting their obligations and obtaining their entitlements in direct support of compliance with CRA administered legislation. Outreach focuses on changing attitudes and behaviours, influencing values, and providing messaging related to service and non-compliance. The Agency-wide direction for outreach is discussed in the section called Taxpayer and Business Assistance (PA1).

We are adding to our service quality by creating new electronic research options, by modernizing and improving our working and testing systems, by expanding training, and by strengthening our procedures manuals.

The electronic and telephone service channels complement each other to provide efficient and effective client support, ranging from supplying general information to dealing with complex account specific issues and transactions. Therefore, we will optimize service delivery channels in order to further this relationship.

We maintain the confidence of benefit recipients, taxpayers, and client governments by applying validation activities. We use a range of tools to verify the accuracy of information provided by individuals, focusing on the validation of information from population segments identified as high-risk. We also identify underpayments as well as overpayments. We are further refining our Benefit Examination Team to achieve greater program effectiveness and efficiencies. We are also developing new validation projects to improve targeting and to ensure optimal use of validation resources.

The program initiatives we will pursue over the planning period are listed in the following table.

Priority Initiatives

Maintaining Business Sustainability

Maintaining business sustainability relates to the business conditions that foster excellence in program delivery through responsible management practices, such as effective accountability and oversight measures, as well as sound management of enterprise risk, human resources, information technology, business knowledge, information, and growth.

Planned Spending by Program Activity

Although our long-term initiatives will promote the longer-term sustainability of the tax system, steps are currently being taken to arrive at the desired end-state. The initiatives listed on the following pages will be undertaken over the planning period to improve or enhance business sustainability.

Improving our Human Resources Capacity

The recruitment and retention of skilled employees remains a priority for the Agency. In an effort to ensure that we are able to continue to meet our business objectives, we are implementing proactive measures to ensure that the capacity and capability of our human resources are sustained.

In the Sixteenth Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada, the Clerk of the Privy Council reinforced Public Service Renewal as a priority. The following four main areas will continue to be pursued under this initiative:

• Integrated business and human resources planning;
• Strategic recruitment;
• Investment in employee development to develop the skills that will meet our future needs; and
• Systems and processes that will enable us to effectively plan, recruit and develop.

The CRA remains a strong contributor to this government-wide effort. Our Agency Workforce Plan sets a forward agenda to support the integration of the management of its workforce in support of business objectives. It is an evergreen document and will continue to be revised on an annual basis to reflect our changing environment and emerging priorities. It clearly illustrates how we will address the priorities set in the Public Service Renewal Action Plan.

The CRA, as a separate employer, has sole authority to enter into collective agreements with bargaining agents. The Board of Management, following consultations with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, provides direction on collective bargaining. Before we initiate collective bargaining with the our bargaining agents, we will identify essential services, manage potential issues, and identify risks.

Plan for and Acquire Talent

Our 2010-2011 to 2012-2013 Agency Workforce Strategy outlines the activities that we will undertake to ensure that we can continue to meet our business objectives. These activities will address knowledge transfer and retention and mobilization of talent.

Furthermore, we will continue to undertake succession planning for both the executive and non-executive cadres, implement items outlined in the Strategic Direction for Employment Equity covering fiscal years 2010-2011 to 2012-2013, and continue to roll out our Official Languages Action Plan.

We are committed to ensuring that we have the right people in the right place at the right time, while offering our employees outstanding career opportunities. To this end, the Agency has instituted Pre-Qualification Processes (PQPs), where candidates applying for permanent positions with the Agency must demonstrate the competencies required for the position. The Agency's Competency Based Human Resource Management (CBHRM) approach includes tools and processes that facilitate the assessment of applicants' competencies. The CBHRM competencies are measurable or observable knowledge, skill, ability or behavioural characteristic that contributes to successful job performance.

We will fully implement end-state pre-qualified pools

The Agency is committed to fully implementing its End-state PQP which requires that, for all selection processes, applicants have the required base competency profile and levels for the posted job in advance. We will fully implement End-State PQP to significantly reduce the time to staff and ensure the CRA has the talent to meet its business needs.

In addition to post-secondary recruitment, we will acquire new talent as part of the harmonization of provincial sales taxes in Ontario and British Columbia. New employees from the two provinces will be integrated into the CRA over the next three fiscal years.

Retain and Mobilize Talent

We will support workplace excellence through the promotion of a respectful workplace linked to our 2008 Public Service Employee Survey results. We will reinforce the application of our standards of ethics in our day-to-day business activities, and we will further strive to ensure co-operative and productive relationships with our bargaining units. We will provide opportunities for employee movement throughout the organization through talent management and succession planning activities.

Develop Talent

Investing in employee development continues to be a commitment of the CRA. We will implement a directive and tools that are aligned with our new Learning Policy that are designed to support the planning and evaluation of learning activities.

The sustainability of the management cadre is essential to ensuring the sustainability of the CRA. To this end, we will expand our management development programs by increasing the number of employees participating in these programs. We intend to attract even more individuals from the employment equity groups into the program.

IT Responsiveness and Sustainability

Our IT strategy consists of enhancing the business-IT alignment, delivering continuous process improvement, and ensuring a knowledgeable, skilled and engaged IT workforce. In support of our aim to deliver on existing and future commitments, strategic investments will be made to ensure the currency of the Agency's applications portfolio and Data Centre facilities.

The CRA's programs and services depend on a complex information technology infrastructure environment. This infrastructure is both aging and complex. Although we have internally funded significant redesign efforts in the past, our capacity to continue to do so in the future is severely limited. The steps taken to address these pressures, in particular formalizing the Strategic Investment Plan, confirm that our ability to reallocate internally to address this investment challenge has been greatly diminished and most opportunities for significant efficiency gains have already been exhausted.

We need to be able to respond in the future with the same speed and rigour that we have consistently shown, most recently with the implementation of the Government of Canada's Economic Action Plan. We were asked to quickly implement changes to tax brackets, the basic personal amount, and the Working Income Tax Benefit as well as the introduction of important new measures like to Home Renovation Tax Credit and the First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit. We worked very quickly to implement these measures to ensure that Canadians had all of the information and tools necessary to take advantage of them.

Our IT security landscape demands constant vigilance, and we are continually evolving our security posture to address increasingly complex cyber-threats. Our development of a credential and identity management service will enable an expansion of our suite of electronic services, while also providing further opportunity to collaborate with provinces and other business partners.

The next major productivity enhancing focus for us is to empower the knowledge-worker through intelligent risk driven workload selection, enterprise content management, workflow management, and collaboration tools. Our challenge will be to develop the tools best suited to our organization, and integrate them into our complex infrastructure.

Bolster Our IT Infrastructure and Solutions

During the planning period, we will develop and advance our data centre recovery and business continuity planning to ensure recoverability efforts continue to meet business requirements for all of our systems. Additionally, we will further develop our multi-year asset management plan to support the life cycle management of our IT assets.

We will also advance our Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Program to address business demands and improve productivity. ECM will provide a CRA-wide approach to the cohesive management of unstructured content with a technical solution to support our Information Management Strategy. Through the use of ECM and supporting technologies, we will strategically position the CRA to align with government and industry practices as it focuses on delivering document management, records management, enterprise search, and collaboration capabilities.

Given that we have a very large Internet presence and manage enormous amounts of confidential taxpayer data, we will strive to meet higher security and service levels and be a leader in achieving operational excellence with regard to protecting our data and other IT assets.

We will evolve our IT security program to ensure that we continue to be at or above the IT security recommendations set out for the Government of Canada. To that end, a multi-year Secure Data Network and Assets (SDNA) Program has been launched. The first phase of this program will deploy security software to provide Network Access Control, Anti-Spyware, and Host Intrusion Prevention for all CRA and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) computer workstations.

We will also undertake options analysis for three additional projects that make up Phase II of the SDNA program. These include encryption of data stored on backup tapes in the distributed environment, protection against internet-based denial of service attacks, and network encryption to protect data that must travel across the entire CRA network.

We will maintain our focus on providing a stable, secure, and highly available distributed computing environment through careful planning, recognizing that this infrastructure will continue to evolve and mature.

The CRA provides IT services and Corporate Administrative System services to the CBSA. We will work in partnership with the CBSA to support the significant change agendas of both agencies and to develop plans that integrate the IT business priorities of both agencies.

We will continue to play a leadership role in evolving the Government of Canada's business and technology models for electronic service delivery by sharing best practices with our partners and by participating in the Treasury Board Secretariat's committees and work teams.

Ensure Secure Management of Protected Taxpayer Information

To continue to ensure that the proper controls are in place to prevent the inappropriate access and/or disclosure of information, we will pursue two initiatives.

We will strengthen information technology security

First, we will carry out our Identity and Access Management Project to standardize processes used to manage access to our data, thereby ensuring compliance with our security policies and rules. Second, in order to ensure that we have a comprehensive strategy for identifying and managing the risk of internal fraud across the Agency, we will develop a comprehensive Internal Fraud Control Program and explore further opportunities such as modernizing the National Audit Trail System's technology.

These will form part of our Corporate Security Strategy, that is under development. Its objective is to ensure that CRA data, information, and assets continue to be protected from all current and future threats. Among other things, this strategy will be used to validate and prioritize proposed security initiatives on an ongoing basis.

Access to Information and Privacy

The CRA will continue to meet the legislative requirements of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, and will provide guidance, policy advice, and training to employees on their obligations under these acts. In particular, we will expand our Access to Information and Privacy awareness program across the Agency to include training that emphasizes general privacy principles and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat's directive on privacy impact assessment. Furthermore, we are exploring the implementation of a chief privacy officer to strengthen the privacy governance structure and to have a central focus for privacy management and overall privacy leadership.

Manage Business Information

Information management relates to the operational necessity of identifying, managing, and safeguarding information that is required for decision-making, policy-making, or accountability purposes. To support this priority, we will enhance our information management practices by implementing an Information Management Strategy to ensure that our information and data products are of the highest quality.

Our Agency Intranet Program will lead the way in our development of Information Management initiatives. We will increase our capacity to effectively manage business demands within the intranet environment, deliver intranet content in support of employee and business needs, create a sustainable and responsive environment, and respond to growing business demands in the areas of virtual management and collaboration.

Accountability and Oversight

Having accountability structures that ensure sound financial and risk-management practices are in place and followed is essential to helping us realize our vision.

Reinforce Accountability and Oversight

We are implementing a number of measures to gain greater assurance that appropriate internal control over financial reporting is operating effectively. These measures will provide assurance that our financial reporting is reliable and significant risks to accurate financial reporting are identified and addressed. They will also respond to audit and reporting requirements under federal-provincial tax collection agreements, to recent policy developments in the area of financial management at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, as well as to the new provisions of the Financial Administration Act.

The new Treasury Board Policy on Internal Control that came into effect on April 1, 2009, requires deputy heads and chief financial officers to sign a revised annual statement of management responsibility. Consequently, one of the initiatives we have launched is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Certification Process. This process will ensure that the Commissioner (who is also the CEO) and the CFO have sufficient information on internal control over financial reporting to fulfil their responsibilities under the new policy. It will also improve the quality, reliability, and transparency of our financial reporting to stakeholders. In addition, the certification process will generate information that will respond to the new provisions of the Financial Administration Act, which designate deputy heads as the accounting officers for their organizations. This role requires them to appear before parliamentary committees to answer questions about measures taken to maintain an effective system of internal control.

Refine our Strategic Investment Plan

In 2009-2010, we implemented a number of enhancements to our investment planning and monitoring framework, including the implementation of practices intended to further mature the project portfolio management approach in the CRA and the development of a long-term strategic investment plan (SIP). The purpose of the SIP is to clearly define strategic investment priorities, to more effectively communicate the magnitude and nature of the investment challenges and risks we will face over the next ten years, and to provide better information to senior management for decision-making. It is intended to complement our existing strategic planning processes to improve long-term planning and the allocation of available investment resources.

We will update our strategic investment plan periodically to align with corporate risks and priorities

The SIP will be further refined in 2010-2011 (and periodically thereafter) to ensure sustained alignment with corporate risks and priorities. Our project portfolio management approach to investment planning will also be facilitated by the implementation of a new project management tool, integrated with our Corporate Administrative System, and related improvements to our project management and oversight framework.

Employ Risk Management Consistently and Systematically

Our Enterprise Risk Management Program was created to ensure that we develop and implement a systematic and comprehensive approach to managing risks that is fully integrated into our strategic, operational, and financial decision-making processes.

Over the planning period, we will focus on further embedding risk information into key CRA processes to achieve true risk convergence. We will implement a risk monitoring and reporting framework to evaluate the effectiveness of risk action plans. In addition, we will continue to build our risk management capacity through the delivery of risk management training.

Telephony Infrastructure Renewal

As a result of evolving industry technology standards, the CRA will have to change its telephony general office systems and infrastructure technology as part of its infrastructure sustainability plans. Although the principle driver for change is sustainability, the new technology will provide opportunities to adopt leading edge tools for CRA office workers where warranted.

The strategy for the renewal will be to maximize the life span of the existing telephone systems, while minimizing the need for major capital infusions during any one fiscal period.

Sustainable Development Strategy

Successive CRA sustainable development strategies have collectively modified the way the CRA acquires, uses, and disposes of assets since 1997. Through strategic interventions, the CRA continues to:

• reduce the impact of its operations on land, air, and water; and
• deliver its services in a more sustainable manner.

These goals have been realized through systematic efforts to:

• engage employees and equip them to apply sustainable development practices in their job; and
• modernize the systems and processes that support and maintain sustainable development practices in the workplace.

As the CRA aligns itself with the requirements of the new Federal Sustainable Development Act (June 2008), the focus of its Sustainable Development Program for the planning period will be on:

• extending the current CRA Sustainable Development Strategy 2007-2010 by one year; and
• preparing and implementing the CRA Sustainable Development Strategy 2011-2014.

The new Sustainable Development Strategy will both respond to the pending Federal Sustainable Development Strategy 2010-2013 and support the CRA's priorities by further integrating sustainable development into CRA business and operations.

For more information on the CRA's sustainable development program, please visit the CRA's Web site: www.cra.gc.ca/gncy/sstnbl.

Further Tax Harmonization

The Government of Canada and the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia have agreed to implement the harmonized sales tax (HST) on July 1, 2010. This will replace existing provincial sales taxes and the federal goods and services tax. Through tax harmonization, we lever our tax administration infrastructure to eliminate administrative duplication and enable enhanced delivery of single-window services.

This is a major development in Canadian tax administration that builds on the success of harmonizing sales taxes in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador, and the more recent transfer of Ontario's corporate tax administration to the CRA.

We will undertake a number of activities to ensure that both the CRA and taxpayers are ready for July 1, 2010. This includes changing our systems to accommodate new requirements to ensure taxpayers are provided with information necessary to comply with the new law. In addition, a number of compliance programs will be modified to reflect the potential for increased risks associated with collection of the new revenues.

Priority Initiatives

Canada's Economic Action Plan Initiatives

Through Canada's Economic Action Plan the federal government is providing significant new personal income tax relief. The measures were effective as of January 1, 2009, and are providing benefits, particularly for low- and middle-income Canadians.

The Canada Revenue Agency has implemented many of the Economic Action Plan initiatives like personal income tax relief and an increased Working Income Tax Benefit, as well as other measures targeted to help families, seniors, workers, and persons with disabilities. We administer tax measures designed to stimulate Canada's economy and help lay a solid foundation for future economic growth, job creation, and a higher standard of living for all Canadians.

We also administer corporate income tax reductions that help position Canadian businesses to weather the effects of the current global economic challenges; to maintain and create jobs; and to emerge from the economic downturn even stronger.

We are committed to ensuring that Canadians have the information they need to take advantage of the tax savings that can help put money back in their pockets during these difficult economic times. In February of 2009, shortly after the introduction of the Economic Action Plan, our minister announced the launch of the ‘You've earned it. Claim it.' advertising campaign to inform Canadians of the tax credits and benefits available to them.

The Economic Action Plan highlighted the following programs that we administer and deliver on behalf of Canadians:

The Working Income Tax Benefit Program provides a refundable tax credit intended to provide tax relief for eligible working low-income individuals and families who are already in the workforce and to encourage Canadians to enter the workforce. As part of Economic Action Plan, the federal government has increased funding to this program by $580 million for 2009 and later years.

The Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) Program provides a tax-free monthly payment made to eligible families which is intended to help them with the cost of raising children under the age of 18. Through the Economic Action Plan, the federal government has raised the level at which the National Child Benefit Supplement amount for low-income families and the CCTB are phased out, so that eligible families with two children can receive an additional benefit of up to $436 starting in July 2009.

For the 2009 tax year, the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC) Program provides a non-refundable tax credit for eligible expenses incurred for work performed or goods acquired for an eligible dwelling. The HRTC provides about $3 billion in tax relief and is part of the $62 billion in stimulus delivered through the Economic Action Plan.

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