2019–20 Departmental Results Report

On this page

Message from the Minister

Foreword from the Chair

Message from the Commissioner

Results at a glance and operating context

COVID-19

Core responsibilities

Results

• Providing a seamless service experience
• Maintaining fairness in Canada’s tax and benefits administration
• Strengthening trust, transparency and accountability
• Enabling innovation
• Empowering CRA’s people to excel

Board of Management results

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Additional information

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of National Revenue, 2020 

ISSN: 2560-9130 

Rv1-32E-PDF

Message from the Minister

Foreword from the Chair

Message from the Commissioner

Tax

Canada’s self-assessment tax system is sustained by providing taxpayers with the support and information they need to understand and fulfill their tax obligations, and by taking compliance and enforcement actions when necessary to uphold the integrity of the system, and by offering avenues for redress when taxpayers disagree with an assessment or decision.

Benefits

Canadians obtain the support and information they need to know what benefits they may be eligible to receive, that they receive their benefit payments in a timely manner, and have avenues of redress when they disagree with a decision on their benefit eligibility.

Performance summary

In 2019–20, the CRA identified five strategic priorities to help it achieve its core responsibilities:

1. Providing a seamless service experience
2. Maintaining fairness in Canada’s tax and benefits administration
3. Strengthening trust, transparency and accountability
4. Enabling innovation
5. Empowering our people to excel

In pursuing these priorities, it achieved these key results:

• The CRA published the Serving Canadians Better report to outline what it heard during the consultations on service and the resulting commitments to Canadians, and published a report on CRA’s 2018 Serving You Better consultations with small and medium businesses
• It resolved an additional $2.0 billion in debt as a result of the 2016 budget investment, bringing the total over four years to $5.5 billion
• It built on its protection of personal information practices, by implementing a new Privacy Management Framework 
• It implemented several service improvements, including:
  • providing an interactive calculator to make it easier to estimate Canada Child Benefit payments
  • simplifying the language and layout of GST/HST and Payroll web content to make it easier for businesses to find and understand information
  • streamlining Contact Us pages to make it easier for Canadians to find the right phone number or mailing address
  • improving access to the Disability Tax Credit by reducing the complexity of the paper form and online application
  • clarifying and simplifying the scientific research and experimental development claim process by redesigning the self-assessment and eligibility tool with users
• It fostered a welcoming and respectful workplace for all employees—more than 7,200 employees took the Positive Space Awareness training, doubling its target of 3,000

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. Though this was in the last month of the reporting period, it was a significant disruption for society, the economy and the CRA. The CRA played a leading role in Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, taking unprecedented action to help Canadians and businesses facing hardship, while ensuring that any privacy implication was reviewed and mitigated.

At the end of March 2020, the CRA took action and laid the groundwork to support Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan. Information related to COVID-19 measures implemented by the CRA are available on Canada.ca and results will be detailed in future reporting. The measures include:

• implementing the Canada emergency response benefit (CERB), an income support for people facing unemployment, who were sick, quarantined, or in directed self‑isolation, and who were unable to work and were not eligible for employment insurance (EI)
• implementing the Canada emergency wage subsidy (CEWS) to help employers re-hire employees and avoid layoffs during the crisis as well as the temporary wage subsidy (TWS) to support eligible employers by reducing the amount of payroll deductions they had to remit to the CRA
• implementing the Canada emergency student benefit (CESB), a taxable benefit for students who are not eligible for the CERB or EI and unable to work because of COVID-19
• providing a one-time increase to the Canada child benefit (CCB) on May 20, 2020. This provided an extra $300 per child for Canadians who normally receive the benefit
• increasing the payments in May 2020 to agencies for the children’s special allowances by an additional $300 per child 
• providing a one-time special goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) credit payment for low- and modest-income families
• estimating GST/HST credit and CCB payments until September 2020, to ensure that benefit and credit payments are not interrupted for those who were unable to file their 2019 tax returns in time to be assessed by early September 2020
• reviewing and extending certain filing and payment deadlines for the 2020 filing season that may pose unnecessary strain on individuals, businesses, trusts and charities 
• implementing an enhanced Charlie the chatbot for the 2020 tax-filing season to provide quick answers to taxpayers’ questions, and get them the information they need, when they need it
• adapting the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program, Benefits Outreach Program and the Liaison Officer service, to be offered by drop-off, video‑conference, over the phone or through a webinar
• accepting electronic signatures for forms T183 and T183CORP authorizing tax preparers to file taxes without requiring taxpayers and their preparers to meet in person 
• supporting provincial and territorial  governments by giving timely information and assistance to ensure that they continued delivering provincial and territorial tax credit or benefit programs. The CRA also collaborated, when necessary, on implementing new provincial measures specific to the pandemic. As well, it made sure it shared any updates on the CRA’s actions in response to the pandemic to allow for alignment between both levels of government regarding programs and messages to taxpayers
• using social media to provide information on the various benefits, promote the website and available digital tools, answer questions and monitor trends and key questions from Canadians to develop useful and timely messages
• temporarily suspending nearly all post-assessment compliance activities, except for high-risk-audits and investigations
• identifying other CRA actions that might pose a burden on clients and determining whether those could be deferred, including suspending collections activities on all debts, except for high-risk cases

The CRA’s work in recent years to transform into a client-centric, digital organization positioned it well to respond to the pandemic and support Canadians in this difficult time. Relying on the competency and capacity of its people, its flexible processes and its robust technological capabilities, the CRA was ready to launch the new emergency measures for Canadians and businesses in record time. The CRA mobilized people and allocated resources to key priorities and was open to accepting more risk in favour of faster delivery of projects. 

The CRA significantly expanded its call centre capacity to address less-complex emergency measure calls. A call out for CRA employees to support the activities of a virtual call centre garnered significant interest, with 7,500 employees responding. The virtual call centre used a new telephony solution that, owing to earlier preparation, was able to be launched in 24 hours.

The CRA also implemented timely measures to ensure that the health and safety of all its employees, especially those who continued to deliver critical services in the workplace. Like other Canadians, CRA employees were asked to follow public health advice and the majority were asked to work from home in the early stages of the crisis. This was enabled by the expedited expansion of remote work capabilities and deployment of equipment. As a result, the CRA has become, to a large degree, a virtual workplace.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) and human resources (full-time equivalents)

Benefits

Canadians obtain the support and information they need to know what benefits they may be eligible to receive, that they receive their benefit payments in a timely manner, and have avenues of redress when they disagree with a decision on their benefit eligibility.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) and human resources (FTEs)

Internal services

Internal services are groups of activities and resources that the federal government considers to be in support of programs and required to meet corporate obligations of an organization: acquisition management, communication, financial management, human resources management, information management, information technology, legal, material management, management and oversight and real property management.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) and human resources (full-time equivalents)

Financial, human resources and performance information for the CRA’s program inventory is available in GC InfoBase.

Key risks

To ensure that it is a world-class tax and benefit administration, the CRA monitors the internal and external environment for events that could impact the achievement of its priorities and objectives. The CRA’s enterprise risk management is agile and well-established. Enterprise risk management also creates an environment where intelligent risk-taking can generate innovation. When intelligent risk-taking is encouraged, more effective decisions can be made on the basis of a well-balanced consideration of both the benefits and risks to the CRA. This approach allows the CRA to optimize its outcomes, prioritize its strategies and adapt for the future.

The risk assessment results respond to the key risks identified during the 2019–20 planning process. The results suggest that the environment was becoming increasingly uncertain, as evidenced by the unpredictability of events like the COVID-19 pandemic. The table below highlights some of the key risks that influenced the CRA’s ability to meet its objectives prior to March 2020. By identifying and managing risks properly, the CRA continues to be well positioned to deliver on its mandate and to maintain the trust and confidence of its clients.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CRA increased the frequency of its updates to the enterprise risk assessment, as well as its reporting to senior management and the Board of Management.

Social responsibility at the CRA

Through the CRA’s core business of tax and benefit administration, it seeks to contribute to the economic and social well‑being of Canada. In addition, the CRA supports initiatives that contribute to local communities and is committed to minimizing the environmental impact of its operations. The following are just a few of the social responsibility activities in which the CRA and its employees participated in 2019–20: 

• promoting International Day of Pink (April 10, 2019) to take a stand against bullying, discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, and transmisogyny
• promoting Mental Health Awareness Week (May 6-12, 2019) to help celebrate, protect and promote mental health
• promoting the Bell Let’s Talk Campaign (January 29, 2020) to raise awareness and combat stigma surrounding mental illness in Canada
• promoting the Moose Hide Campaign, which was originally created to engage Indigenous and non-Indigenous men and boys to stand up against violence towards women and children; it has expanded to engage all Canadians in ending domestic and gender-based violence against women and children
• partnering with organizations to recycle materials. Those organizations include Staples and Terracycle Canada (writing instruments), Computers for Schools (office supplies, electronics, electrical equipment), Canadian National Institute for the Blind and Lions Club (eyeglasses), Call2Recycle and Raw Materials Company (batteries), and Dress for Success (gently used professional attire and accessories)
• partnering with Tree Canada to plant a tree for each long-service award recipient, with more than 46,000 trees having been planted since the partnership began in 2012 
• directly supporting a wide range of social, health, and community agencies and organizations—large and small—in communities across Canada through the CRA Charitable Campaign

For more information, please see the CRA’s Sustainable Development Strategy and the supplementary information tables.

Gender-based Analysis Plus

The Government of Canada seeks to advance gender equality in all areas. In support of this initiative, the CRA regularly analyzes its programs and services through a Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) lens in an effort to eliminate bias on basis of factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age and mental or physical disability. The CRA has a three-year GBA+ action plan that includes:

• providing support for the development of policies and proposals in support of government initiatives;
• promoting the annual GBA+ Awareness Week; 
• and reporting on GBA+ progress and milestones

In 2019–20, the CRA undertook 67 GBA+ program and policy assessments. GBA+ highlights and results by programs are provided in the GBA+ supplementary information table. In addition, the CRA participated in interdepartmental GBA+ working groups and delivered training and awareness sessions to its employees. The CRA also developed and implemented a communications strategy to promote and raise awareness and understanding of GBA+ requirements across the organization.

The CRA also participated in training led by the Department of Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) to keep apprised of developing issues, and participated in WAGE’s annual interdepartmental GBA+ implementation survey to evaluate the CRA’s progress and consider the results to inform future practices. Results demonstrated that the CRA has made solid progress in building GBA+ capacity and integrating GBA+ in its policies, programs and services. The CRA will continue to improve the consistent application of GBA+ and its monitoring of the impacts of GBA+ activities and initiatives.

The CRA is also a member of the Gender Balance Network, which was launched by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) in the spring of 2019 to serve as a catalyst for positive institutional change. The Network developed learning products and identified examples of practices that have been effective in addressing disparities in an effort to close the gender gap, particularly in leadership positions where historically there has been an underrepresentation of women. In 2019–20, the CRA launched a survey to collect information from tax administrations on legislation, policies and initiatives that have been introduced to improve gender balance. Twenty-eight tax administrations responded to the survey, and the results are being used to develop international best practices that will be presented to the FTA Commissioners. The CRA will look to integrate gender considerations and findings of this initiative into its future planning and activities.

For more information on GBA+, please see the supplementary information tables.

Taxpayer Bill of Rights

The CRA integrates the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBR) in its core responsibilities and across all of its daily activities. The TBR is a vital part of the CRA’s service transformation to be client-centric, fairer, and more supportive. The TBR defines 16 rights that build on the CRA’s values of integrity, professionalism, respect, and collaboration. These rights describe the treatment taxpayers are entitled to when dealing with the CRA. The TBR also sets out the commitment to small businesses to make sure their interactions with the CRA are conducted as efficiently and effectively as possible. 

Taxpayers have eight service rights outlined in the TBR (identified with an asterisk below) that govern taxpayers’ relationship with the CRA. The CRA’s service journey has promoted the widespread understanding of those rights to make sure they are integrated in how it delivers programs and services, and interacts with its clients. 

1. You have the right to receive entitlements and to pay no more and no less than what is required by law
2. You have the right to service in both official languages
3. You have the right to privacy and confidentiality
4. You have the right to a formal review and a subsequent appeal
5. You have the right to be treated professionally, courteously, and fairly*
6. You have the right to complete, accurate, clear, and timely information*
7. You have the right, unless otherwise provided by law, not to pay income tax amounts in dispute before you have had an impartial review
8. You have the right to have the law applied consistently
9. You have the right to lodge a service complaint and to be provided with an explanation of the CRA findings*
10. You have the right to have the costs of compliance taken into account when administering tax legislation*
11. You have the right to expect the CRA to be accountable*
12. You have the right to relief from penalties and interest under tax legislation because of extraordinary circumstances
13. You have the right to expect the CRA to publish its service standards and report annually*
14. You have the right to expect the CRA to warn you about questionable tax schemes in a timely manner*
15. You have the right to be represented by a person of your choice*
16. You have the right to lodge a service complaint and request a formal review without fear of reprisal

Commitment to small business

1. The CRA is committed to administering the tax system in a way that minimizes the costs of compliance for small businesses
2. The CRA is committed to working with all governments to streamline service, minimize cost, and reduce the compliance burden
3. The CRA is committed to providing service offerings that meet the needs of small businesses
4. The CRA is committed to conducting outreach activities that help small businesses comply with the legislation we administer
5. The CRA is committed to explaining how we conduct our business with small businesses

Providing a seamless service experience

A seamless service experience makes it easier for the CRA clients to fulfill their tax obligations and receive benefits. It does this by providing a consistently positive experience regardless of how, when, or whom they interact with at the CRA.

Reaching out to Canadians

Helping get it right the first time

Making it easy

Resolving disputes and requests for relief

Maintaining fairness in Canada’s tax and benefits administration

The CRA takes its responsibility to preserve the fairness of Canada’s tax system seriously. In its dealings with clients, the CRA emphasizes a service oriented approach first, followed by a progressive approach with its compliance activities. When necessary, the CRA takes measures to enforce compliance among individuals and businesses who intentionally try to avoid paying their share of taxes.

In 2019–20, the CRA continued to take a variety of measures to protect Canada’s revenue base. It used business intelligence, collaborated with international tax administrations and domestic partners, addressed tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, reduced the social acceptability of the underground economy, and resolved taxes assessed but not yet paid. The progress it has made on initiatives that were undertaken last fiscal year is presented below along with how it performed implementing the specific commitments it made to Canadians in its plans for 2019–20.

Using business intelligence to improve fairness

Understanding how and why taxpayers do not always comply is critical to preserving the fairness of Canada’s tax system and ensuring that the CRA’s activities remain effective and efficient. In its analysis, the CRA uses various business intelligence tools that are instrumental in understanding and predicting certain behavioural patterns. In 2019–20, the CRA tested new approaches to enhance its risk assessment tools and used machine learning^{Footnote 27}  to develop predictive models to help identify non-compliance and predict results of compliance efforts.

Advances in technology, large data sets, and increased concerns for privacy protection all point to the need for ethical guidance. In 2019–20, ethical considerations were at the forefront of the CRA's approach to identifying and mitigating potential bias in algorithms, predictive models and research. In addition to the Code of Ethics, the CRA designed a detailed ethical checklist to standardize research ethics principles. It also began to increase experimentation in and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with emphasis on the ethical development and deployment of algorithms and predicative models. By taking proactive steps to govern algorithms, predictive models and AI, the CRA is ensuring it will be in a better position to ensure both ethical implementation and appropriate monitoring as the CRA integrates modern tools in support of delivering services to Canadians.

The CRA also increased the sources of data it uses to help it gain knowledge of transactions that may not be otherwise detected. It increased information gathering and sharing capabilities with its partners, and enhanced its tools and skillsets to identify non-compliance and apply penalties against tax preparers, promoters and other third-parties who intentionally file or prepare false statements or omit information on other individuals’ income tax returns.

Collaborating with international tax administrations

Regarding the global economy, effective and fair tax administration is best achieved collaboratively. In 2019–20, through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Forum on Tax Administration, the CRA continued to examine how participating tax administrations assess risk in areas that lead to the most disputes, such as transfer pricing, to achieve a common understanding of what constitutes a risk to compliance. The CRA also enhanced the Knowledge Sharing Platform for Tax Administrations, an online tool that includes interactive eLearning, virtual classrooms, peer-to-peer discussions and events. This tool is increasingly being used internationally to support initiatives to increase the knowledge of tax administrations throughout the world. 

As part of Canada’s obligations, the CRA exchanges country-by-country (CbC) reports with other international tax partners. Canada’s third peer review (as of December 31, 2019) relating to the implementation of CbC reporting, which covered 131 jurisdictions, indicated that Canada’s implementation of the CbC minimum standard met all the applicable OECD terms. During the review, Canada had 65 Qualifying Competent Authority Agreements with other jurisdictions.

The first OECD Tax Certainty Day was held on September 16, 2019. This event gives tax policy makers, tax administrations, business representatives and other stakeholders a chance to focus on ways of improving dispute prevention and dispute resolution.^{Footnote 28}  In support of this event, the CRA was one of 19 tax administrations that actively participated in the second phase of the International Compliance Assurance Programme (ICAP). The ICAP gives tax authorities a unique opportunity to prevent potential transfer pricing disputes and offers multinational enterprises and tax administrations a faster, clearer route to tax certainty. Traditionally, tax administrations only come into contact with each other after they have taken position on a particular transaction. However, the ICAP creates an environment for multilateral collaboration from the start of a risk assessment exercise. This helps avoid the need for time consuming and costly dispute resolution processes later.

Addressing tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance

Domestic and international tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance can place the integrity and fairness of Canada’s tax system at significant risk. As a result of budget investments of over $1 billion between 2016 and 2019, the CRA increased its ability to identify and target aggressive tax planning, especially more egregious cases. It also implemented new business intelligence tools and, in support of the Minister’s mandate, continued to work with international partners to combat tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance. These partners include the OECD, the OECD Taskforce on Tax Crimes and Other Crimes, the Forum on Tax and Crime, and the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) to examine how other tax administrations assess risk to their revenue bases and identify areas of concern. On the domestic front, the CRA continued to work closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and various law enforcement agencies to combat non-compliance. As a result of all of its efforts, the CRA’s fiscal impact per audit increased to $142,000 in 2019–20, from $92,000 in 2014–15. The total fiscal impact in 2019–20 was just under $12.7 billion, or 8% more than in 2014–15. 

The CRA also contributed to the legislative framework for a public registry of beneficial ownership of federally and provincially incorporated businesses to safeguard against money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.

The fight against tax avoidance is increasingly moving from the audit stage into the courts. Litigation involving the CRA represents approximately 40% of all the cases to which the Government of Canada is a party. In collaboration with the Department of Justice, the CRA continued to pursue the public’s interest in litigation involving tax planning that aims to minimize taxes to levels below those intended by Parliament. Recent court decisions will help form the CRA’s strategy to address base erosion and profit shifting by large multinational enterprises and wealthy individuals.

In its ongoing efforts to prevent and address aggressive tax avoidance, the CRA revised the Information Return Relating to Controlled and Not-Controlled Foreign Affiliates form. The updated form includes additional information requirements to help identify new areas of risk and better ensure tax compliance. It also includes a group filing option, which should make it easier for taxpayers to file.

Reducing the social acceptability of the underground economy

One of the CRA’s compliance priorities is to reduce the social acceptability of, and participation in, the underground economy (UE). In 2019–20, the CRA continued to educate Canadians on the negative impacts of participating in the UE, and to address the most severe cases of non-compliance through its audit activities. As a result of income tax and GST/HST tax audits, the CRA identified over $2 billion in unreported income.

The CRA also participated in the OECD’s Shadow Economy Community of Interest, where member countries share best practices aimed at reducing the size of the UE. It also participated in three expert groups that exchange information to promote:

• a whole government approach to addressing the underground economy
• the sharing of intelligence on specific shadow economy topics such as digital currencies
• better measurement of the shadow economy, specifically the tax gap

The CRA worked with provincial and territorial partners to share information and identify taxpayers who were not fully compliant. In 2019–20, it participated in the bi-annual Federal-Provincial-Territorial Underground Economy Working Group to share best practices on enhancing compliance.

It also updated its web pages to tell taxpayers and registrants who participate in the platform economy^{Footnote 31}  about their tax obligations. As well, it partnered with a platform economy operator to remind participants of their tax obligations. 

The CRA launched the Be Part of the Solution campaign to increase public awareness of the negative impacts of the UE. The campaign explains what the UE is, how it affects public programs and services, how the CRA finds UE activities, and encourages consumers and businesses to be part of the solution by recognizing the UE and helping fight it.

Resolving taxes assessed but not yet paid

The CRA is mandated to collect tax and other types of debts, assessed through federal, provincial and territorial laws. To make it easier for taxpayers to pay the tax they owe, the CRA launched the payment arrangement calculator, a tool to help them come up with a plan for a proposed payment arrangement. 

The CRA also took a service-oriented approach with taxpayers who are unable to pay their debts by identifying segments of the vulnerable population who are most in need of compassionate flexibility through the Workload Enhancement Pilot. The purpose of this approach is to assign "the right account, to the right officer, at the right time." The CRA identifies accounts that belong to vulnerable population groups, such as pensioners, other low income earners and people in financial hardship, and uses a service-oriented approach to solve the underlying issue those taxpayers are facing.

Strengthening trust, transparency and accountability

Maintaining the public’s trust in Canada’s tax system is of paramount importance to the CRA: it inspires positive compliance behaviours that contribute to protecting Canada’s revenue base. Canadians also need to know that the personal and financial information they share with the CRA is protected, and that the CRA continually takes measures to further that trust by being transparent and accountable. The CRA is always working to strengthen its security to protect Canadians’ information. 

Cyber threats continue to evolve and increase in number and complexity, but so have the ways in which the CRA and the Government of Canada defends against them. There are robust systems and tools in place to monitor, detect and investigate potential threats and neutralize them, while minimizing service disruptions. Breaches in other organizations can also affect CRA clients. In 2019–20, data breaches occurred at Desjardins Group, Bulgarian National Revenue Agency, Capital One and Revenu Québec which affected some of the CRA’s clients and their interactions with the CRA. In such situations, the CRA is able to identify affected accounts and disable access to make sure taxpayer information is safe and secure. When clients are victims of fraud or identity theft, the CRA prioritizes assistance to them.

The CRA is one of the largest holders of personal information in the Government of Canada. In 2019–20, the CRA increased its efforts to protect its clients’ information and increase the CRA’s transparency in response to a wide range of security risks in a fast‑changing environment. The progress the CRA made on initiatives it started last fiscal year is presented below along with how it performed in implementing the specific commitments it made to Canadians in its plans for 2019–20.

Protecting client information

Protecting privacy and confidentiality rights is central to the integrity of the CRA. In 2019–20, the CRA improved its measures to prevent unauthorized access to its databases and to control and monitor information leaving the CRA, which supports the Minister’s mandate commitment to improve protection of taxpayer information. It continued to centralize enterprise data to make it available to employees who need it and are authorized to access it, while restricting access to others. 

Safeguarding privacy

The CRA is committed to upholding the trust that Canadians place in it when they share their personal information. In 2019–20, the CRA built on its strong practices of protection of personal information, by implementing a new Privacy Management Framework to make sure the personal information it holds is properly managed and protected. The framework identifies the driving factors for the CRA’s approach to privacy, its privacy guiding principles, its commitment to privacy, and privacy governance.

Taking stock of the CRA’s commitments to Canadians

Increasing transparency

The CRA is committed to quality client service and maximizing its transparency. In 2019–20, it continued to expand the amount of data published on open.canada.ca, focusing on the needs of Canadians. 

The CRA seeks to measure its performance in the most meaningful ways and report on that performance openly. This year, the CRA engaged stakeholders across its organization, external experts, and international partners to develop a new approach to performance measurement that is based on the CRA’s transformation to being a more people-centric organization.

Bill C-58, an Act to amend the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, received royal assent in June 2019. This bill makes important improvements to the openness and transparency of government. The CRA implemented all action items to ensure a smooth application of the bill. Furthermore, in an effort to be transparent, in 2019–20, it completed over 7,600 requests and processed 2 million pages under the Access to Information and Privacy Act.

Enabling innovation

The CRA embraces innovation and strives to find new and better ways to meet clients’ evolving service expectations, administer benefit programs and protect Canada’s tax base. It recognizes the importance of adopting new business approaches and advanced technologies, it encourages employees to explore new ways of doing work, and it actively recruits data scientists to meet the challenges of the future.

During 2019–20, the CRA continued to work on achieving excellence through innovation and adding value through technologies, and incorporating them into its daily operations. The progress it has made on initiatives it started last fiscal year is presented below along with how it performed implementing the specific commitments it made to Canadians in its plans for 2019–20. This section also highlights several experiments the CRA undertook in 2019–20, their results, and the lessons the CRA drew from them.

Achieving excellence through innovation

In 2019–20, the CRA leveraged its networks and collaborated with partners to innovate. It launched a pilot Data Scientist Development Program leveraging external training specialized in data science. Its success led to broader engagement with other government departments and the CRA’s participation in developing data scientist training with the Canada School of Public Service. The CRA also fostered collaboration and partnerships by sharing and exchanging innovative approaches with other departments and agencies to address and gain insight on common issues.

The CRA continues to incorporate behavioural insights into its program design and experiments. It successfully completed five nudge^{Footnote 32}  experiments, including one aimed at encouraging charities to file their annual information returns on time.

Additionally, the CRA fostered a culture of continuous improvement across the organization. It created working groups and provided training on using promoted approaches such as Lean^{Footnote 33}  to gain efficiencies in processes.

The CRA used analytics and experimentation to improve its Internet presence. It measured the performance of its web pages that offer the most in-demand information and used the results of this test as the basis for improvement. The CRA improved the language and layout of its:

• Goods and Services Tax (GST) and payroll online content for businesses to make it easier to understand
• "Contact Us" page to improve Canadians’ ability to find CRA addresses and telephone numbers
• Canada child benefit content to help parents understand how to access the benefit

The CRA’s user testing showed that, on average, Canadians had a higher rate of success at getting the answers they need with the new content – from an average of 51% success at finding answers with the old content to 85% success of finding answers with the new content.

Adding value through technology

Information technology (IT) is critical to all aspects of the CRA’s operations and is the backbone of tax and benefits programs and services to Canadians. The availability and reliability of the CRA’s information technology systems are critically dependent on Shared Services Canada (SSC) and, in 2019–20, the CRA updated the SSC/CRA Governance Framework related to reporting, communications and project management.

Experimentation and Innovation

The CRA promotes a culture of innovation and encourages its employees to explore new ideas, test new ways of doing business and find better solutions. During 2019–20, the CRA conducted a variety of experiments and research studies, striving to maximize efficiency, productivity and the quality of its services. A few of its experiments are highlighted below.

Empowering CRA’s people to excel

The CRA’s employees are its greatest asset. The CRA’s vision for its people is to build a thriving workforce, combining strengths and contributing to a transforming Canada. To achieve this goal, the CRA is committed to creating a healthy and inclusive environment where its diverse workforce feels safe and is supported by their leaders. The CRA encourages collaboration and information‑sharing, promotes healthy workspaces, and listens to its employees’ feedback on how it can do better.

During 2019–20, the CRA empowered its people to excel by supporting their professional development, encouraging their career aspirations using leadership development processes, and promoting character leadership. The CRA supported interdepartmental career mobility through interchange assignments so that employees could acquire new experiences and develop new skills.

Furthermore, the CRA continued to build a respectful, healthy and inclusive work environment – one free from discrimination and harassment. The progress it has made on initiatives that it started last fiscal year is presented below, along with how it did implementing the specific commitments it made to Canadians in its plans for 2019–20.

Preparing CRA’s employees for the future

True to its commitment to strengthen its service culture, the CRA developed its human service roadmap. The roadmap supports the CRA’s organizational and culture shift toward client‑centered service and aligns its structure, culture and resources to meet future challenges.

The CRA completed the second iteration of the employee service culture survey to give its employees an opportunity to share their views on the CRA’s transformation. The survey also helped to the CRA to identify areas where it can strengthen its service culture.

To better meet its operational needs and allow more talent mobility between other departments, agencies and the CRA, the CRA changed the minimum education standards for certain job classifications. This included matching educational standards to current post-secondary requirements for the actuarial science employee group and removing mobility barriers within the CRA by allowing other fields of specialization in the auditing group.

In an effort to be innovative and learn from colleagues in other sectors, the CRA participated in the exchange of ideas on leadership practices with other government departments and agencies, including Treasury Board’s Behaviours/Attributes Working Group, and the character leadership communities within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Securities Establishment and the Canadian Space Agency.

Building a healthy, inclusive, and diverse workforce

The CRA strives to ensure that its employees work in a respectful environment, in which diversity is recognized as a strength. In 2019–20, it promoted diversity by implementing the Strategy for the Recruitment, Inclusion and Retention of Indigenous People. As part of this strategy, the CRA established the Indigenous Mentoring Initiative, where new Indigenous employees are paired with an Indigenous mentor, and the Indigenous Buddy Initiative, where Indigenous students are matched with an Indigenous employee. 

The CRA promoted a safe and inclusive workplace that is welcoming to all its employees, including those belonging to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, two‑spirit, and others (LGBTQ2+) community. As part of this commitment, it launched a national Positive Space^{Footnote 38}  initiative to create a safe, accepting, and open-minded environment for the LGBTQ2+ community. It also promoted inclusivity and equality within the CRA and in its programs for Canadians by completing over 60 program and policy assessments using a Gender‑based Analysis Plus (GBA+) assessment tool. GBA+ is also used within several CRA decision‑making and reporting processes to ensure that inclusivity is considered and integrated.

The CRA developed a Healthy and Safe Workplace Action Plan focused on prevention, response, and support to address discrimination and harassment in the workplace. The plan incorporates recommendations from the Clerk of the Privy Council’s Report on Safe Workspaces, updates to the Workplace Violence Regulations, and feedback from consultations with stakeholders across the CRA.

Further to its commitment to a respectful workplace, the CRA continued to work closely with Public Services and Procurement Canada to support Phoenix stabilization and to plan for the future of compensation delivery in the public sector.

Strategic direction

In 2019–20, the Board of Management (Board) and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) focused on five joint strategic priorities of: 

• providing a seamless service experience
• maintaining fairness in Canada’s tax and benefits administration
• strengthening trust, transparency, and accountability
• enabling innovation
• empowering CRA’s people to excel 

Enhancing service to Canadians and treating them like valued clients has always remained at the core of all strategic priorities and this was further strengthened by the launch of CRA’s People First philosophy: being supportive, innovative, one team, fair and people-centric.

During this fiscal year, the Board continued to use oversight tools such as the Board and Committee quarterly performance dashboards and the Status Report on Strategic Deliverables from the Summary of the Corporate Business Plan (Summary), to monitor the CRA’s progress on the Corporate Business Plan (CBP) commitments. This critical performance information allowed the Board to provide strategic advice and direction to the CRA to ensure that it remains well positioned to achieve its commitments as set out in the CBP.

The declaration of the pandemic in March 2020 resulted in disruption to the CRA’s business operations. The CRA had to rapidly shift its focus to delivering critical economic aid to Canadians on behalf of the Government of Canada, while also ensuring employee well‑being. The Board continued to meet virtually, and more frequently, to receive information from the CRA management team and oversee the continued efficient and effective management and administration of the CRA.

A key element of the Board’s fiduciary oversight is careful attention to risk identification, assessment, and mitigation. In March 2020, the Chair of the Board’s Audit Committee collaborated with the CRA’s Chief Audit Executive to develop a detailed COVID-19 risk impact analysis report, which was based on a preliminary assessment of the risks faced by the CRA specific to the COVID-19 pandemic. The principle behind considering each risk and assigning a certain level of urgency to the risk was based on its potential impact on CRA’s business continuity and business resumption, and employee well-being. The Board received regular updates in the form of a risk dashboard report and offered advice to the CRA’s Chief Audit Executive, during its special COVID-19 meetings.

As a result of the pandemic, certain deliverables highlighted in this report were deferred to a later date. The Board will continue to monitor and support the CRA to ensure that these commitments are completed, as the CRA resumes operations, or where necessary, oversee adjustments that are needed as a result of the impact of the pandemic on CRA programs.

Providing a seamless service experience

In its efforts to provide Canadians with a seamless service experience, the Board oversaw the CRA’s outreach to Canadians in 2019, including the CRA’s consultations to further improve its service offerings. The three resulting recommendations include:

• making information more helpful and easier to understand
• providing more convenient access to services and support
• ensuring Canadians feel understood, respected and valued

The Board and CRA will monitor and respond to these recommendations and continue to improve the service experience of Canadians.

Following the CRA’s June 2019 report that outlined the actions it took to address some of the concerns of small and medium businesses, the Board’s Service Transformation Subcommittee received updates and provided guidance on the CRA’s efforts to better support these businesses. 

The Board received regular updates on the CRA’s efforts to improve the accuracy of its online information for: 

• individuals and businesses
• charities
• taxpayer filed objections
• taxpayer relief requests
• benefit recipients
• self-employed individuals 

The Service Transformation Subcommittee continued to support and monitor the CRA’s various service initiatives through the CRA-wide service feedback dashboard and service redress dashboard reports. The Board received updates on the work of the Chief Service Officer. It approved the CRA’s Service Policy Framework. The Framework establishes an integrated approach to service and outlines the foundational tools (vision, values, guiding principles, and service identity) that will guide the transformation of the CRA’s programs, services and culture to deliver better outcomes for Canadians.

Maintaining fairness in Canada’s tax and benefits administration

The Board oversaw and supported the CRA’s efforts to maintain the fairness in Canada’s tax system through its oversight of CRA communications and services. This enables Canadians to comply with their tax obligations and receive eligible benefits and credits. 

In 2019–20, the Board continued to encourage the CRA to use business intelligence to combat non-compliance, the extent of which was highlighted in the CRA’s tax gap report on corporation taxes. The Board also received reports on the CRA’s continued efforts to address the underground economy in partnership with provinces and territories and various international organizations.

The Board was particularly encouraged by the CRA’s collaboration with international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as well as other tax administrations and organizations to combat tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, and share best practices.

To ensure fairness in Canada’s tax system, the Board oversaw the CRA’s outreach to vulnerable segments of the population to raise awareness of the importance of annual tax filing, and to access benefits and credits. These segments include:

• Indigenous people
• newcomers and refugees
• seniors
• youth and students
• persons with disabilities
• modest-income individuals
• homeless and housing-insecure individuals

In 2019–20, the CRA conducted 3,919 outreach activities, an increase of 35% from the previous year.

Strengthening trust, transparency, and accountability and security

The security of taxpayer information is paramount to the trust Canadians place in the CRA. During 2019–20, the Board oversaw the CRA’s continued efforts to review and improve its security policies, procedures and protocols. The Board oversaw the CRA’s efforts to ensure that employee security awareness of taxpayer information held in the CRA’s databases.

The Board received regular updates from the CRA’s Chief Privacy Officer on data breaches and CRA’s response to those incidents. The CRA implemented its Privacy Management Framework under the Board’s oversight, which will further strengthen the protection and management of personal information. The framework outlines the necessary measures to protect personal information, enable the appropriate management of data and drive employee responsibility for privacy.

Through the quarterly cyber security dashboard, the Board monitored the CRA’s overall cyber-security health and global events that could potentially cause harm to the CRA. The Board was pleased with the CRA’s collaboration with external organizations and the private sector to learn from their experiences, and implement means of informing and protecting the personal and financial information of Canadians.

The Board received an annual and mid-year update from the President of the Shared Services Canada (SSC) on various information technology projects for which the CRA is dependent on SSC. The Board continued to encourage the productive and collaborative relationship between the CRA and SSC to ensure continued service to Canadians. 

The Board approved the CRA’s Information Management Policy Framework to outline roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of key players at the highest level, including the CRA’s Information Management Strategy. This will help the CRA advance an information management culture that is collaborative and uses information management functionality in business and technology in an appropriate manner. 

The Board also reviewed and approved the CRA’s Information Technology (IT) Policy Framework and its associated policy instruments, which set the direction for the management of IT in support of CRA priorities. This also ensures that IT continues to provide the necessary capacity to sustain current and emerging CRA business needs, while providing the necessary support for innovative initiatives.

The Board recognizes that environment and climate change are the realities of present and future generations. The Board reviewed and approved the CRA’s Sustainable Development Strategy to integrate sustainable development into the CRA’s operations. This will help reduce negative environmental impacts and contribute positively to the economic and social well-being of Canadians.

In fall 2019, the Board proactively engaged CRA management in discussions on its crisis management readiness, which informed the CRA’s refresh of its business continuity plan, and ensured that the CRA was positioned to respond to the pandemic.

Enabling innovation

The Board continued to support the CRA in its efforts to innovate, and to experiment and implement new technologies that enhance the CRA’s efficient delivery of its programs and services.

The Board received reports on the CRA’s first design jams, which explored how the CRA might better meet the needs and expectations of users interacting with it. The design jams focused on:

• candidate profile, which allows potential job seekers to apply for opportunities with the CRA
• the disability tax credit
• the SR&ED program 

The Board also oversaw the enhancement of business intelligence capabilities through the delivery of new tools, processes and infrastructure focused on creating a central, authoritative data foundation and leading the modernization of human resources reports.

The CRA piloted new qualitative approaches to improve the effectiveness and service focus of its programs for specific segments of the population, including the personal income tax content optimization project, the disability tax credit form and online application design, and the Canada child benefit content optimization.

The Board has been very supportive of the CRA’s efforts towards developing an artificial intelligence (AI) enablement plan, which will position the CRA to better leverage AI and use it to improve its services and inform compliance actions. The CRA also continued to make progress in using technology by further improving its Charlie the chatbot service and building upon its 2018 launch. The chatbot not only responds to frequently asked tax questions but was enhanced in 2020 to answer questions about Canada’s COVID-19 response and related benefits.

In line with the Board’s priority attached to innovation, the CRA completed a number of experiments involving behavioural insights (nudges), which were undertaken to help Canadians make informed decisions about matters related to tax and benefits. A number of pilots involving new qualitative approaches (e.g., ethnography, user-experience and design thinking), were also undertaken to improve the effectiveness and service focus of the CRA’s programs for specific segments of the population.

In the spring of 2020, the Board’s annual strategic development meeting focused on understanding the implications of the pandemic on the CRA, uncovering potential blind spots and considering future innovations and implications for tax administrations. This foresight exercise informed the Board’s consideration of its priorities for the years ahead.

Empowering CRA’s people to excel

The Board reviewed updates on the CRA’s considerations and plans for the workforce, workplace and leadership of the future, including its plans for recruiting, training and reskilling its workforce for the future.

To position the CRA for the future, it is important that it has the right leadership in place to motivate and lead employees. Under the Board’s oversight, the CRA successfully integrated character leadership as a staffing requirement for its entry-level executive positions. This included raising awareness and training for the senior level executives on character leadership; a combination of virtues, personality traits and values that enable excellence.

The Board received regular updates on the CRA’s efforts towards creating a diverse, safe and inclusive workplace, and encouraged CRA management to continue to strengthen its efforts in this regard. Employee well-being, learning, training and development were part of regular discussions between the Board and CRA’s senior management. The Board monitored the CRA’s efforts towards helping employees with Phoenix-related issues. The Chair of the Board’s Human Resources Committee visited the CRA’s compensation call center in 2019 to better understand the CRA’s efforts in helping its employees.

The Board approved CRA’s Annual Workforce Plan and received updates on the CRA’s efforts to enhance its staffing program and other human resources initiatives. The Board paid close attention to the outcomes of the annual 2018 Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) and received updates on the 2019 PSES, with a particular focus on an inclusive and diverse workplace, free of any discrimination and harassment.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Board has paid special attention to the CRA’s efforts towards safeguarding the mental and physical health of its employees. This oversight will continue as the CRA gradually moves towards resuming its business operations. The Board will work with the CRA management to ensure that CRA employees are well supported and have the necessary tools to be productive, innovative, and feel empowered to excel, while working remotely in most cases.

Conclusion

The Board, in partnership with the CRA, accomplished its overall strategic objectives for 2019–20, and remains committed to:

• working with CRA management in its post-pandemic business resumption efforts
• fulfilling its oversight responsibilities, in its fiduciary role
• providing strategic advice and guidance to the CRA
• exploring innovative methods to streamline the Board’s governance and social responsibility to make its oversight role more effective and efficient

The Board thanks the Commissioner of Revenue, Mr. Bob Hamilton for his leadership of the CRA, and is also grateful to CRA management and employees for the excellent support in enabling it to carry out its fiduciary obligations. The Board is particularly appreciative of the commitment and effort shown by the CRA during the pandemic and looks forward to seeing the momentum continue as the CRA strives to better serve Canadians as a world-class tax and benefit administration.

For information the Board of Management attendance record for 2019–20, please see the supplementary information tables.

Actual expenditures

Spending trend (dollars)^{Footnote 39} 

The majority of the increase in the overall budget can be attributed to statutory appropriations, which include spending associated with the climate action incentive (CAI) payment starting in fiscal year 2018–19 (see endnote 5). The CRA is responsible for administering the fuel charge in jurisdictions that do not meet the federal carbon pricing benchmark. This includes delivering the CAI payment, which returns the majority of the direct proceeds from the fuel charge to individuals and families of the province in which the proceeds are raised. 

Actual spending under the voted appropriations for the 2017–18 to 2019–20 fiscal years also includes technical adjustments such as the carry forward from the previous year and funding for severance payments, parental benefits, and vacation credits. In 2017–18, a significant portion of the increase in spending is associated with the cash out of severance benefits for employees represented by the Union of Taxation Employees-Public Service Alliance of Canada. In 2019–20, the increase in spending over prior years can largely be attributed to new funding to implement and administer measures announced in Budget 2019 and to growth in funding for federal budget and policy measures announced in prior years as well as collective bargaining adjustments. 

The 2019–20 total authorities available for use increased by $3.0 billion, or 69%, over planned spending. Of this amount, $2.6 billion is related to the statutory CAI payment. Other increases are attributed to the technical in-year adjustments mentioned previously, funding for Budget 2019 measures and the federal fuel charge, as well as collective bargaining adjustments (for more details, please see "Authorities approved after Main Estimates" in the supplementary information tables). Of the 2019–20 total authorities, $307 million remained unspent at year-end. The majority of this amount, $287 million can be carried forward to 2020–21 under the statutory two-year spending authority. Not spending the full amount formed part of the CRA’s strategy to manage changes in the funding profile of major project investments and to address unfunded operating pressures. Also, the spending was curtailed in several programs toward the end of the fiscal year because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the CRA’s operating environment. The CRA will carry forward these funds and redirect them to help offset emerging tax and benefit pressures.

The increase in FTEs in 2019–20 is attributed to new funding the CRA received to implement and administer measures announced in the 2019 Federal Budget and growth in funding for federal budget and policy measures announced in prior years. These measures include the federal carbon pollution pricing system. A portion of the decrease in internal services FTEs is due to assigning direct internal service costs to the programs starting in 2019–20 (mainly within the tax core responsibility).

Financial statements highlights

Agency activities

The CRA’s 2019–20 net cost of operations before government funding and transfers amounted to $4,959.3 million, an increase of $379.3 million from the $4,580.0 million net cost of operations before government funding and transfers in 2018–19.

Personnel expenses (salaries, other allowances and benefits) represent 76% of total expenses and are the CRA’s primary costs. The remaining 24% of expenses are comprised of other costs such as information technology and accommodation expenses. 

Personnel costs have increased by $433.2 million in 2019–20, including salary expenses ($260.6 million) and other allowances and benefits ($172.6 million). The increase is mainly explained by expenses resulting from increase in the number of employees, economic salary increases and salary increments. Additionally, Phoenix damages were awarded to employees as part of the new Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) collective agreement ($11.6 million) and tentative Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) collective agreement (estimated at $76.9 million). Furthermore, the cost of the employer’s contribution to the health and dental insurance plans has increased due to the overall increase in the CRA’s salaries as well as the change in the plans’ rate (9,2% in 2019–20 compared to 8,5% in 2018–19) provided by the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada ($32.7 million).

Non-personnel expenses have decreased by $12.3 million in 2019–20. This net variance mainly results from a decrease in advertising, interest, amortization and other services and expenses.

Liabilities have increased by $269.7 million in 2019–20. This was mainly attributable to the increase in the current year provision for salary accruals to reflect expired collective agreements ($202.4 million) and Phoenix damages awarded to employees as part of the tentative PSAC collective agreement ($76.9 million). Additionally, Phoenix damages related to the new PIPSC collective agreement increased the vacation leave payable to employees ($11.6 million). The overall increase was offset by a decrease in the accounts payable to external vendors ($33.7 million), which was partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As critical services were prioritized and buildings had limited or no access, purchases completed in March were reduced compared to previous years.

The decrease of $38.5 million in financial assets reflects a decrease in the due from the consolidated revenue fund resulting mainly from the decrease in the accounts payable to external vendors. The due from the consolidated revenue fund account represents the net amount of cash that the CRA is entitled to draw without using further appropriations to discharge its liabilities.

Administered activities

The CRA administers revenues for the Government of Canada, provincial and territorial governments and First Nations as well as pension contributions and other revenues for the Canada Pension Plan. The total administered revenues amounted to $467,216 million in 2019–20, an increase of $9,997 million or 2.2% from 2018–19. This increase is partially due to sustained economic growth offset in part by lower tax revenue estimates caused by tax payment deferrals to September 30, 2020. The introduction of the fuel charge on April 1, 2019 under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act also contributed to the increase in revenues.

The CRA administers expenses for the Government of Canada, provincial and territorial governments as well as the doubtful accounts expense for the Canada Pension Plan. The CRA also administers recoveries for the Government of Canada relating to the Old Age Security and employment insurance benefits. The total net administered expenses and recoveries amounted to $40,762 million in 2019–20, an increase of $3,374 million or 9.0% from 2018–19. The increase primarily reflects higher climate action incentive payments which rose due to significant enhancements to the benefit, along with the inclusion of Alberta in the credit for tax year 2019 under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. The increase also reflects higher Canada child benefits due to indexation, higher Canada workers’ benefits due to an increase in maximum benefit amounts, more and higher grants under the refundable investment tax credits to corporations and higher provision for doubtful account expense for GST and T1. This increase was offset by a large reduction in interest from corporations.

Total administered assets amounted to $124,421 million as at March 31, 2020, a decrease of $7,550 million or 5.7% from 2018–19. The decrease stems from the payment extension relief measures as announced in the Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan offset in part by an increase in disputed arrears.

Administered liabilities amounted to $60,988 million as at March 31, 2020, a decrease of $5 million or 7.6% from 2018–19. The decrease reflects the reduction in the number of tax returns assessed, due to the filing extension relief measures announced in the Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan. 

Additional information

Organizational contact information

For more information about the CRA and its governance, visit Canada.ca.

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on the CRA’s website:

• Authorities approved after Main Estimates
• Board of Management attendance record for 2019–20 and compensation rates
• CRA sustainable development strategy
• Definitions
• Details on project spending
• Details on transfer payment programs of $5 million or more
• Endnotes
• Hyperlinks
• Gender-based analysis plus
• Raison d’être, mandate and role
• Response to parliamentary committees and external audit

Public service commission and assessment of recourse reports

The Canada Revenue Agency Act requires the CRA to include in its annual reporting a copy of any report produced under subsection 56(1) or a summary statement of any assessment produced under section 59.

The report and assessment are produced on an as needed basis. During 2019–20, the Public Service Commission did not prepare, or have prepared on its behalf, a report to the CRA pursuant to subsection 56(1) of the Canada Revenue Agency Act on the consistency of the Agency’s staffing program with the principles set out in the summary of its corporate business plan. For the same period, the CRA did not prepare pursuant to section 59 of the Canada Revenue Agency Act an assessment of the recourse the Agency provides or administers in its management of human resources. 

Links

• Expenditures by vote
• Financial statements 
• Government of Canada spending and activities
• Report on Federal Tax Expenditures
• Service standards
• Supporting information on the Program Inventory