Sustainable Development Strategy 2007-2010

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The CRA and Sustainable Development

Canadians place a strong importance on protecting the environment[Footnote 1]. Preserving environmental quality contributes positively to quality of life, as well as economic prosperity for today and in the future. Governments and businesses are realizing that continued prosperity and competitiveness are tied to sustainable communities that are safe, liveable, healthy, and productive.

The Government of Canada has a major role in using sustainable development to enhance business objectives and reduce the negative impacts of its operations on the environment and human health. The Government is one of the largest service providers, landowners, consumers of goods and services, and employers in the country.

For this fourth round of federal sustainable development strategies, the Government's goals are aimed at integrating environmental sustainability with human health and economic competitiveness.

Vision

In past strategies, we primarily focused on reducing the environmental impacts from our operations. In this strategy, we will broaden our scope by demonstrating how the CRA is a socially responsible organization that operates in an efficient and environmentally responsible way.

The purpose of the strategy is to set a course of action toward:

• Reducing the impacts of our vast operations and service delivery on the environment
• Leveraging sustainable development to enhance business objectives and efficiencies
• Demonstrating how the CRA contributes to the economic and/or social well-being of Canadians, businesses, clients, and employees.

The CRA's vision for sustainable development

To be a globally recognized tax and benefits organization for best practices in sustainable development.

The way in which we administer programs and promote compliance with Canada's tax legislation will contribute to the economic and social well-being of Canadians and ensure a sustainable environmental footprint of our operations and service delivery.

Role and fit

The CRA's mission is to administer tax, benefits, and related programs and to ensure compliance on behalf of governments across Canada, thereby contributing to the ongoing economic and social well-being of Canadians.

CRA at a Glance (Annual Report 2005-2006)

• Collected close to $330 billion—averaging over $1.3 billion every working day, including:
  • Almost $52 billion on behalf of Canada's provinces, territories, and First Nations
  • Almost $17 billion in Employment Insurance premiums
  • Over $30 billion on behalf of the Canada Pension Plan
    
• Distributed benefit and credit payments worth close to $14.7 billion to over 11 million entitled Canadian recipients
  
• Met or mostly met 86 of 89 results indicator targets
  
• Over $626 million in interest and penalties waived or cancelled under Fairness Provisions
  
• Over 1.5 million employers withheld and remitted $183 billion in source deductions—about 56% of the revenues we collected
  
• Over $10.4 billion in fiscal impact identified through measures for addressing non-compliance
  
• Approximately 25 million individual tax returns and 1.6 million corporate tax returns processed
  
• Almost 30 million tax-related visits to the CRA's Web site and over 50 million forms and publications downloaded
  
• More than 25 million public enquiries answered
  
• Almost 16,000 volunteers completed nearly 500,000 simple tax returns for low-income, eligible taxpayers
  
• More than 7,300 voluntary disclosures processed, with related assessments totalling over $330 million

For more information on the corporate profile of the CRA, see Appendix 1.

Sustainable development defined

Sustainable development at the CRA is about choosing to administer programs in ways that will extend the benefits of economic prosperity to broader segments of the population, ensure universal access to social services, and preserve the health of the natural environment
(land, air, and water).

Our lever for sustainable development is how we administer programs on behalf of the federal, provincial, and territorial governments. We reduce the environmental impact of our operations by using an Environmental Management System[Footnote 2] and information technology to deliver more efficient services to the public. We also contribute to the social and economic well-being of Canadians by ensuring that Canada's revenue base is protected and that families and individuals receive timely and accurate benefit payments.

Highlights of our successes in sustainable development are published in our annual report to Parliament. Over the next three years, we will develop a report card that will demonstrate how the CRA contributes to all three pillars of sustainable development, across all its business lines.

Projections of our sustainable development plans are highlighted in our Corporate Business Plan. In the 2006-2009 plan, sustainable development is presented in a dedicated appendix at the end of the document. We are also committed to applying principles of sustainable development in our Agency 2010 plan. Agency 2010 is the CRA's blueprint to becoming the key interface between client governments and taxpayers, and it addresses issues such as tax simplification and reducing the paper burden on individuals and business.

We continue to seek new opportunities to contribute to sustainable development through the CRA's responsibilities as an employer, an administrator of federal laws and provincial and territorial agreements, a partner, a facilitator, and a consumer of goods and services.

Sustainable development opportunities at the CRA

Economic

The CRA has an important role in protecting Canada's revenue base, and in administering tax and benefit programs to Canadians. For example, the CRA: promotes voluntary tax compliance to collect revenue annually on behalf of federal government, provinces, territories, and First Nations; pursues a procurement process that is both financially and environmentally responsible; increases outreach, expands electronic services, and improves accuracy when working with Canada's businesses; and works with other government departments and agencies on joint program delivery, which contributes to shared federal objectives.

Social

The CRA has an important role to administer various social and economic benefit and incentive programs delivered through the tax system. For Canadians and clients, the CRA: administers timely and correct benefits and credit payments to ensure that low- and moderate-income families receive their rightful share of income-based benefits; ensures fairness and client rights are satisfied; assists Canadians in meeting their tax obligations by providing improved access to information on the CRA's Web site, call centres, and volunteer tax-filing assistance; improves the regulatory environment in which charities operate; improves services and cooperation with the voluntary sector, which is an important contributor to the social fabric of Canadian communities; and shares international tax and benefits knowledge and technology with partners and developing nations. The CRA must also ensure the well-being of its large employee workforce. For its employees, the CRA demonstrates its corporate social responsibility by providing a healthy and productive work environment, and offering training and development programs for employees.

Environmental

Given its large geographic footprint, the CRA has a responsibility to deliver its services in an efficient and environmentally responsible way. For example, the CRA has systems in place to enable employees to reduce, reuse, and recycle solid waste generated at work (e.g., paper); reduce the paper burden in the delivery of tax and benefit programs to the public; purchase environmentally friendly office products; and ensure proper maintenance of its vehicle fleet. The CRA also has a responsibility to promote energy conservation in the buildings it occupies, promote sustainable business travel such as video-conferencing, and reduce the use of hazardous materials, where alternatives exist. The result of these actions will conserve natural resources, prevent pollution, minimize waste sent to landfill sites, reduce the use of energy and fossil fuels, and reduce the amount of greenhouse gas and other emissions that contribute to air pollution.

Footnotes

[Footnote 1]

Various polls have indicated an increasing interest by Canadians in protecting the environment. These polls include the National Public Opinion Survey by the Innovative Research Group Inc., June 2006; Sustainability Research Initiative - Survey on the views and values of Canadians on the issue of sustainability, James Hoggan and Associates and McAllister Opinion Research, February 2006; the Canadians' View on Future Canada-US Relations, IPSOS Reid Report, March 31, 2004; and What Do You Think, IPSO Reid / University of British Columbia Poll, September 2002.

[Footnote 2]

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a systematic approach to incorporating environmental considerations into an organization's activities and provides a framework for managing environmental performance.

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