Turning ideas into innovations

Transcript

NARRATOR (Annick): The CRA is always thinking of new ways to offer better services to Canadians… and this means staying innovative.

Recently, three teams were given the challenge of creating real change to improve our services.

You could say...

...they were sent on a mission.

SEBASTIEN: My team’s mission was to make a mobile version of the CRA’s existing online service, MyAccount. It needed to work for smartphones and tablets because those are what Canadians are using.

Integrating all of those services into one app meant collaborating with CRA employees from across the country.

ANNICK: My team’s mission was to redesign the notice of assessment that everyone receives when they file their income tax and benefit return.

We wanted to make the notice of assessment easy to read, with the key information on the first page.

ELISE: My team’s mission was to make it even easier to file online for Canadians who don’t want to fill out paper tax forms. 

The CRA already has much of the information on file, so why not create a way to transfer it automatically to the forms?

NARRATOR (Annick): Our missions were definitely challenging… but with so much teamwork and creativity, never impossible!

ANNICK: We used a development methodology called “Agile”, that’s popular among tech start-ups.

Agile is a more fluid workflow that fosters collaboration. The increased pace and creativity allowed us to make bigger changes that benefit Canadians.

The results speak for themselves—now, the notice of assessment really meets the needs of Canadians!

ELISE: With our partners in the information technology field, and with input from external stakeholders, we created a way to automatically fill out tax returns. 

This is a very secure way to fill in parts of your return.

SEBASTIEN: We improved our online services by creating a mobile app called myCRA. Now you can do simple tasks, like check on the status of your tax refund, check your RRSP room, or even change your address – anytime, anywhere...

NARRATOR (Annick): It’s satisfying to know that our innovations are helping to improve our service to Canadians.

And this is just the beginning...