Introduction

The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) is proud to provide you with this document entitled Comprehensive Discussion of our Performance by Business Line. It provides a detailed description of the performance of our five business lines in line with the CCRA's overall performance story contained in our second annual report entitled, Account ability — 2001-2002 Annual Report to Parliament.

Account ability (also available on-line at www.ccra.gc.ca/annualreport ), is the ongoing title of our annual reports to Parliament. It is a permanent record of the funds we have spent and the results we have achieved in our second year of operation as an agency, as they relate to the mission and strategic objectives set out in our 2001-2002 to 2003-2004 Corporate Business Plan . It is presented in two parts:

• the CCRA Performance Report offers an agency-wide overview of our performance as well as a comprehensive description of our expected outcomes, anticipated results, success criteria, and performance for each of our five business lines (Tax Services, Benefit Programs and Other Services, Customs Services, Appeals, and Corporate Management and Direction). In addition this report includes an assessment from the Auditor General of Canada of the fairness and reliability of the performance information; and

• the CCRA Financial Statements provides the audited financial results of our operations and responsibilities during 2001-2002 and other financial information to meet government-wide performance reporting requirements.

In Comprehensive Discussion of our Performance by Business Line you will find additional context and detail to the performance information contained in Account ability for each of the CCRA's five business lines. It also provides a more detailed discussion of our approach to delivering on our mission of promoting compliance with Canada's tax, trade and border laws (See Schedule A Managing the Compliance Continuum), and a more focused look at the results of client surveys and partnerships. For ease of reference, both a glossary and a list of acronyms are included. We anticipate that this comprehensive discussion will be of interest to CCRA employees and other individuals and organizations wishing to gain a deeper understanding of the results we are achieving for Canadians.

Within the context of our mission and strategic direction, we have identified two strategic outcomes that represent the ultimate results we are seeking as an organization: Compliance—that Canadians comply with tax, trade, and border legislation; and Innovation—that the CCRA is a leading-edge service organization. These two strategic outcomes are supported by six intermediate-level outcomes that have a clear impact on Canadians. Each of our business lines contributes to one or more of these outcomes:

Of these six intermediate outcomes, the last two fall within our innovation agenda, which is the subject of a multi-year plan we are in the midst of implementing, and which has been refined since we first became an agency. Our innovation agenda includes four change objectives, further elaborated in our 2001-2002 to 2003-2004 Corporate Business Plan : transformation of our core business for better service delivery; human resources reform and renewal; administrative reform and renewal; and transparent management for results. We are reporting our year-two progress against our change agenda, building on last year's performance results. This milestone is particularly relevant, as realizing our change agenda is essential to achieving real gains in preparation for our five-year review by Parliament.

The four other outcomes relate to our core, day-to-day operations. Sustaining an appropriate level of performance year in and year out against the expectations we have established for these four outcomes remains the primary focus for our business lines.

To assess our performance in achieving our six intermediate outcomes for innovation and core operations, we have established 34 anticipated results that are aligned with the strategic goals and objectives organized along our two strategic outcomes:

Managing the compliance continuum. All the services and activities we carry out fall along a continuum that runs from facilitating Canadians' obligations to comply with the law, where voluntary compliance is considered to be generally high, to assisted compliance that provides added checks and balances (e.g., audit) to ensure that the law is properly understood and respected, to enforcement activities aimed at counteracting tax evasion and smuggling. Underpinning the compliance continuum is a dispute resolution system that aims to provide fair and impartial redress. Managing the compliance continuum requires us to maintain a balance between individual interests and the public good, whether we are providing high-quality and responsive services on the one hand, or responsible enforcement on the other.

Innovating for the future. Innovation is a key driver of the CCRA's change agenda. We want to be recognized as a leading-edge service organization, and four change objectives guide our agenda: business transformation that keeps pace with client needs; human resources reform and renewal; administrative reform and renewal; and transparent management for results. Implementation is well under way in all these areas.

Rating our performance

We use a performance report card system to align anticipated results with expected outcomes by business line, identifying the actual results achieved and the indicators we use to assess our performance. Our overall assessment of ratings reflects our best judgment of our performance and the quality of our data, based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative factors.

We rate each anticipated result and show whether our performance met, mostly met, or did not meet the target. We also rate the quality of our performance information according to whether the data are considered good, reasonable, or weak. This dual rating system uses colour-coded symbols where squares indicate our performance and circles indicate the quality of our data. In assessing our performance for 2001-2002, we used a range of indicators including survey results, statistical samples, and relevant business volumetrics. In some cases, we relied on estimates to get a rough, but useful sense of a performance trend. Over time, these estimates provide an indication of how well the CCRA is performing at promoting compliance, within certain parameters. In other cases, robust performance indicators are not yet in place, or the supporting data are inherently too imprecise to draw firm conclusions, but represent the best available information at this time.

The ratings included in this document reflect the assessment made in Account ability —2001-2002 Annual Report to Parliament and are, in fact, identical to the ratings in the tabled report. Additional material in this document support and complement Account ability providing a more detailed portrayal of key elements. However, this document has not undergone the third party review by the Office of the Auditor General to which Account ability was subjected. It is important to note that the data quality ratings displayed in this document relate only to the information found in Account ability and are not intended to provide assurance as to the quality of the information presented in this Comprehensive Discussion of our Performance by Business Line.

Tax Services:

Benefits and Other Services:

Customs Services:

Appeals:

Corporate Management and Direction:

Date modified:

2002-11-07