What it is

The CRA is widely recognized as a highly efficient and robust organization entrusted with administering many critical income tax and social and economic support policies on behalf of governments across Canada. To maintain sustainable high‑quality tax, benefit, and related services, we must ensure that we have in place modern management practices and a sound infrastructure that ensure that we are able to comply with the accountability requirements of financial and administrative legislation, regulations, and policies.

The information below sets out the overall spending levels for business sustainability over the period covered by this report

(in thousands of $)

Total authorities
$1,185,988

Actual expenditures
$1,042,551

Variance
$143,437

Full-time equivalents
8,570

What we achieved during 2010-2011

• An assessment by the CRA Board of Management of 19 indicators concluded that our performance was “strong” for 15 and “acceptable” for four;
• The Management Accountability Framework assessment of six indicators conducted by the Treasury Board Secretariat gave the CRA three “strong” and three “acceptable” ratings; and
• Our Injury and Illness Policy, complemented by our Managing Injury and Illness Process Tool, has been recognized as a best practice within the Public Service and is now shared with three other government departments.

Where we go from here

Management oversight

In 1999, the Canada Revenue Act established a unique governance structure for the CRA. This structure encompasses a direct, legislated relationship between the Minister of National Revenue and the Board of Management, as well as specific, legislated roles and responsibilities for each.

To make sure that we are effectively meeting our responsibilities for accountability, we use two complementary tools: the Management Accountability Framework (MAF) assessment conducted by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the Board of Management Oversight Framework (BoMOF) assessment conducted by our own Board of Management. Together, the two assessment tools provide a complete evaluation of the CRA’s management performance.

In 2010-2011, our Board of Management conducted the fourth BoMOF assessment and gave our management team high grades. Out of the 19 indicators, none required attention or presented an opportunity for improvement. All were found to be “Strong” or “Acceptable”.

Table note 1

The CRA was not assessed for certain areas during this current MAF round. Return to table note 1 source text

The 2010-2011 MAF assessment examined six indicators during the most recent MAF round. The CRA received “Strong” ratings for half of these indicators and “Acceptable” for the remainder.

The positive results of these assessments provide Canadians with assurance that the CRA is actively pursuing management excellence. A full report card of the MAF and the BoMOF assessments is displayed at the end of this section.

Improving our human resources capacity

The CRA environment is experiencing the effects of some important changes that continue to have an impact on our workforce and workplace. These include baby boomers leaving the workplace, taxpayers’ changing needs, and the emergence of new technologies. The challenge lies in identifying where to focus our efforts and resources to ensure that we continue to attract, develop and retain a workforce that will enable us to meet both current and future business requirements.

In 2010-2011 we have taken an increasingly strategic and horizontal approach to aligning its human resources planning with its business planning. Our third consolidated Strategic Workforce Plan (ASWP) lays out how we will ensure that it acquires and develops the human resources talent necessary to achieve program objectives.

Since its first publication, the ASWP has matured into an effective planning tool that establishes the workforce goals and objectives that we must achieve to support the strategic priorities identified in our Corporate Business Plan.

The CRA implemented several components of the ASWP in 2010-2011:

• A Respectful Workplace intranet module was launched that added new topics throughout the year, including a video featuring our Commissioner.
• The CRA’s Injury and Illness Policy was complemented by our Managing Injury and Illness Process Tool, which was promoted extensively throughout 2010-2011. It has been recognized as a best practice within the Public Service and is now shared with three other government departments.
• A voluntary survey of managers was completed in summer 2010 to gain a better understanding of employee mobility issues and challenges. The survey results were published to enable branches and regions to use this information in their development of tailored strategies.

The CRA also fulfilled commitments made in the ASWP related to leadership development, employee orientation, and learning strategies for key jobs:

• Various initiatives were undertaken to address the learning needs of managers as their careers progress. A manager Café was created on the Manager’s Corner Web site to allow for the exchange of information and ideas. An Executive/Cadre Orientation Session and an Executive/Cadre Learning Program were launched to support newly recruited executives.
• Employee orientation is a key activity in developing the CRA’s talent pool. In 2010-2011 we launched “A Good Start”, an employee orientation program to provide new employees with helpful information about the organization. We also launched a web site to support managers in integrating new employees.

In addition, as a result of agreements with the provinces related to HST this past year, we welcomed new provincial employees into our organization. The first wave of provincial employees made a successful transition to the CRA in November 2010.

In 2010-2011 we undertook activities that reinforce our ongoing commitment to values, ethics, and integrity. An Integrity Framework is being developed to support the CRA in balancing two significant responsibilities: fostering our culture of integrity; and, preventing, monitoring, detecting, and managing integrity lapses. A “CRA culture of integrity value chain” was developed. Tailored orientation and training products help executives, managers, and employees recognize and fulfil their roles in a way that reflects the CRA’s culture of integrity and its core values.

Our Discipline Policy and Procedures, which were extensively reviewed and enhanced in 2010-2011, contribute to the overall integrity of the CRA by clearly articulating the possible consequences when an employee fails to act in accordance with the values and expected standard of conduct. Appropriate disciplinary and/or administrative action (up to and including termination of employment) is promptly taken in all cases where employee misconduct has been determined.

Information technology

Information technology (IT) is integral to our capacity to deliver our programs and services to Canadians. To maintain this capacity, we work diligently to ensure that our systems and infrastructure are robust, secure, reliable, and recoverable.

System updates

In October 2010, CRA-Credential Management Service was implemented, significantly reducing the CRA’s cost of authentication for e-services and positioning us to grow our e-service offerings cost-effectively.

In 2010-2011, we updated the Information Technology – Infrastructure Investment Plan (IT-IIP) to reflect both funding restraints and planned expenditures. Our Application Sustainability Program was enhanced by implementing a long range plan. We are addressing the challenge to update our aging applications and infrastructure, notably through the development of our strategic investment plan. We also agreed to share our technological expertise with Treasury Board Secretariat in developing a government-wide response to the Office of the Auditor General audit on IT sustainability.We have continued to maintain and enhance the productivity of the IT infrastructure through well planned and timely system upgrades.

Working with others

The CRA has entered into a tri-lateral arrangement with the Bank of Canada and Public Works and Government Services Canada to jointly acquire data centre services in the National Capital Region from the private sector. The data centre will support both our work and that of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The contract to build the new facility was awarded in 2010-2011. The state-of-the-art data centre will meet long-term availability, business continuity, security, and growth requirements, while incorporating “green” energy and environmental technology.

Environmental upgrades were implemented at all of our data centres in 2010-2011, while ensuring recoverability efforts continue to meet business requirements for all CRA systems. In the event of a disaster at Data Centre Heron we have improved our ability to respond and provide near-continuous availability to taxpayers and benefit recipients through the automatic transfer of mainframe services to Data Centre St-Laurent. We also dedicated significant resources to prepare our systems and infrastructure for the tax season, avoiding major outages, and decreasing the number of critical incidents that have a national impact during the filing season.

During the year, we maintained high levels of availability for the multiple national CRA and CBSA systems, while meeting the challenges of safeguarding our IT assets from accidental or deliberate security threats. We also worked with the CBSA to ensure that our shared IT services relationship, the largest within the Government of Canada, continues to be cost effective for the Government. In 2010, we updated our Memorandum of Understanding for the provision of Corporate Administrative Services to the CBSA.

Awards and secure systems

In October 2010, we were recognized as Distinction Award Honourees for four of our information technology projects at the Government Technology Exhibition and Conference. Our Quality Program has advanced the use of collaboration technologies such as Wikis, strengthening quality by supporting faster and wider communication of specialized knowledge.We continue to evolve the suite of social media tools available to CRA staff to support new ways of doing business.We further developed our IT strategy, focusing on our commitment to sustain and improve our performance by strengthening the governance of our IT investments and implementing best practices for risk management.

In addition, over the past year, we continued to advance our Security Modernization Program as we began deploying host intrusion protection technology and advanced preparations for the implementation of network access control technology. We also implemented the CRA-Credential Management Service on time and within budget, significantly reducing the cost of authentication for e-services and positioning the CRA to grow its e-service offerings in a cost‑effective manner.

Our internal assessment of our success in the area of IT was reinforced by a third party assessment during this reporting period. In 2010, an expert advisor evaluated the CRA’s IT infrastructure and concluded that the strategies we are implementing are consistent with industry best practices. In fact most major components of our IT infrastructure perform as well as or better than our peers.

Ensure secure management of protected information

Safeguarding Canadians’ personal information is a priority at the CRA. In 2010-2011, we made investments in our security management systems in order to protect information. We are modernizing the National Audit Trail System (NATS) to streamline employees’ access to our systems and to permit a more proactive approach to detecting unauthorized access. NATS was selected as a project to be included in the CRA’s Strategic Investment Plan. We continued to advance the Identity and Access Management Project. Its objective is to standardize processes used to manage access to our data, thereby ensuring compliance with security policies and rules. We also advanced the Internal Fraud Control program, to ensure that the organization continues to take all reasonable measures to safeguard the assets, resources, information and reputation of the organization. This includes the development of tools and methodology to perform fraud risk assessments. The Internal Fraud Control Policy received Board of Management approval in June 2010. This policy defines internal fraud for the CRA and describes roles and responsibilities for control of fraud.

During the reporting period, the Information and Technology Security Strategy was produced to ensure an integrated and consistent approach to the delivery of our security program. It articulates a consolidated governance structure to further strengthen our ability to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our information and technology assets. The Strategy was approved by the Board of Management in December 2010.

Manage business information

This past year saw the CRA take a major step forward in enhancing our information management practices. We developed our Information Management Strategy 2010-2011 to 2012-2013, the first of its kind for the organization. The strategy approved in 2010 will help us to align with emerging Government of Canada direction. It will also support:

• information sharing within the CRA and with clients and stakeholders;
• electronic information gathering in response to litigation;
• knowledge management; and
• accountable and transparent decision making.

We completed the development of the primary functional information classification scheme and retention periods for all program and most corporate branches. We also analyzed approaches to create and implement the detailed classification structure in three pilots and conducted research on metadata and recordkeeping. A recommendation to build the information management foundational elements necessary for future implementation of an electronic document management solution was presented in June 2011. Follow-up detailed planning will take place in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.

Reinforce accountability and oversight

We take accountability very seriously, recognizing that transparency is crucial to demonstrate results for Canadians and to gain taxpayers’ trust. In 2010-2011, we tested the design and implementation of our key internal controls related to financial reporting on our activities and partially completed operational effectiveness testing of these controls. These efforts support the Chief Executive Officer’s and Chief Financial Officer’s annual Statement of Management Responsibility Including Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, which is published with the annual Financial Statements audit report.

This work will provide assurance that appropriate internal controls over financial reporting are operating effectively and that our financial reporting is reliable. It ensures that significant financial controls, risks, and issues are identified and addressed as required by the Tax Collection Agreements, the TBS Policy on Internal Controls, and the Financial Administration Act.

Budget 2010 announced that federal government departments’ and agencies’ operating budgets would be frozen for two years at fiscal year 2010-2011 levels. This year, we developed a cost containment management plan to ensure that resources would be available to continue to support government priorities, as well as to fulfil our legislated responsibilities and maintain the delivery of core business, while respecting the need for fiscal restraint.

Refine our strategic investment plan

First introduced in 2009, our Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) provides decision-makers with the necessary information to effectively manage our portfolio of major infrastructure investment projects. It is integrated with our strategic themes and objectives, and consistent with the Treasury Board’s Policy on Investment Planning. Annual updates to the SIP focus on ensuring the integrity and sustainability of our mission-critical systems, and allow for adjustments to be made in view of changing priorities, emerging risks, or government-wide initiatives that affect funding.

The second, 2010-2015 edition of the SIP was successfully developed and approved by senior management in the reporting period. During its development, particular attention was devoted to ensuring the plan adequately reflects our needs and priorities in terms of IT infrastructure and business/IT solutions. This theme was replicated throughout the various related SIP products, such as the Treasury Board Submission and Capital Plan prepared in support of the condition to access the funding for the T1 Redesign. The plan led to investment decisions and the granting of approval for a number of projects to initiate their planning stages and present a submission to our Agency Management Committee.

In 2010-2011, we also implemented an integrated project management tool, Project System, for major new investment projects. Project System was integrated into our Corporate Administration System to facilitate project and portfolio structuring and reporting. Among its benefits, the new tool enables the multi-year tracking of project costs and enhances our ability to compare planned costs to actual expenditures. In accordance with the plan for gradual implementation, seven projects were captured in Project System in 2010-2011 as they entered new stages of the approval process. To ensure the successful implementation of the new system, monthly discussion forums were held to gather feedback and provide training. A strong commitment to consultation and coordination with key stakeholders ensured that issues were addressed and that the most accurate financial information possible was captured in the system.

Employ risk management consistently and systematically

The Enterprise Risk Management program is designed to effectively manage risks through a systematic and comprehensive approach that is methodically integrated into CRA’s decision-making, planning, and reporting processes.

An update to Our Corporate Risk Inventory 2009 was completed in 2010. The 2010 edition of the Inventory was developed by conducting interviews that provided a broad perspective on shifts in the internal and external environments that drove changes to the risks presented in the 2009 Inventory. The conclusion drawn from these interviews was that no significant changes to the enterprise risks have been identified that warrant additional action. Consequently, we are continuing to implement strategies for already identified risks requiring mitigation.

During 2010-2011, we consulted with national and international organizations from the public and private sectors as well as communities of expertise on leading practices. Based on our research findings, we adopted an improved enterprise risk management cycle. This multi-year approach will eliminate cycle overlap and process fatigue, provide a more horizontal outlook, and reduce inefficiencies while increasing the availability of more timely and relevant risk information.

Through an updated methodology and approach, we began the development of our Corporate Risk Profile 2011. We are using environmental scans, risk interviews and risk analysis to support risk responses and action plans. We have increased the level of risk management training throughout the organization, while improving the efficiency and content of our training programs. Additional work continues to develop a more agile and robust enterprise risk management regime.

Enhance sustainable development

This past year was a transition year for the CRA in implementing our Sustainable Development (SD) National Action Plan. While we continued to focus on maintaining SD momentum, we began preparing the CRA to support Canada’s first Federal SD Strategy. During 2010-2011, we implemented numerous activities under the SD National Action Plan including increasing SD awareness, the sustainable business travel course, green procurement, energy conservation, battery recycling program implementation, SD performance reporting and the paper use reduction. The following reflects the results of these efforts:

• 97% of employees are familiar with SD as it relates to the CRA (up 8% from 2007 and exceeding the 2010 target of 95%);
• A total of 1,400 employees completed the Sustainable Business Travel course;
• Over 49% of goods purchased in Synergy were “green”;
• Energy waste was reduced by 25% in six pilot facilities;
• Battery recycling programs were expanded; and
• An updated SD Performance Reporting Tool, SD Criteria Tool, and new SD wiki space were launched.

As encouraging as these results are, average office paper use per employee increased by 4%, highlighting the need for continued efforts to meet our paper reduction commitments.

The CRA Sustainable Development Strategy 2011-2014 was developed to specify direction for future CRA SD activities.

Enhance the integration of social media

Due to the rising popularity of social media and increased demand from both Canadians and internal stakeholders to accelerate its use, we completed a Strategic Plan for External Communications through Social Media for 2010-2012. This plan establishes clear goals and objectives when using social media to communicate with Canadians and identifies planned activities in support of these objectives.

In 2010-2011, social media components were considered for all major communication and marketing or advertising initiatives. When deemed appropriate, social media tools, YouTube videos or videos for the CRA video cast window were incorporated into larger communication and marketing strategies. Social media was fully integrated into the tax-filing season strategy. For example, we used our new Twitter account to issue tweets about our popular Tax Tip series.

For the second consecutive year, we repeated our YouTube Video Contest – The Underground Economy: Not Your Problem? – as a component of our Compliance Communication Strategy. The objective of the contest was to continue the discussion initiated during the first contest about the downside of the underground economy.

The CRA Web site strategic plan

The CRA Web Site Strategic Plan 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 was approved in February 2010. This plan established key objectives. To meet them, we undertook a variety of initiatives to better understand and respond to Canadians’ expectations for our Web services. The following highlights illustrate how we have moved the Strategic Plan forward:

Objective – Increase the overall awareness of the services offered on our Web site;

• We completed another phase of a multi-phase project to research and assess ease of use of the Web site, finding information, and increasing self-service for users.

Objective – Increase the ease of finding information by 5%;

• We conducted our 2010 CRA Web Site Individual Telephone and Online User Survey. The results showed high levels of satisfaction with our Web site, but also opportunities for improvements.
• We conducted usability testing with individual and business users to measure and track satisfaction levels and future expectations.
• We developed high-level business requirements for advanced Web site research to better understand usage patterns and success rates for user tasks.
• We completed an upgrade of a new search engine for our Web site to enhance search capacity and improve findability for users.
• We developed business requirements for a test environment on how users search to ensure results are of high quality.
• We actively participated in the User Experience Working Group, which was established by Treasury Board Secretariat to develop more usable Web sites for the Government of Canada.

Objective – Explore and implement where appropriate three new web technologies to facilitate communication and collaboration

• We improved our Web site infrastructure to support enhanced multimedia content.
• We continued with CRA-wide implementation of the Publishing Content Management Solution to provide efficiencies for current manual processes and ensure compliance with evolving Web standards.

Complete our service standards review

In 2009-2010, we completed a comprehensive review our service standards to determine whether the CRA was communicating, monitoring, and reporting on the right services, with the right targets, in a way that is meaningful to, and effective for, clients. (Please see Schedule B).

Conclusion

During the past year, we continued to develop modern and innovative management practices and sound infrastructure that are necessary conditions to sustain the high-quality tax, benefit and related services we provide on behalf of governments across Canada. We are confident, based on internal and external assessments and our demonstrated achievements, that we again delivered on our management priorities through our strong performance, timely and responsive decision-making, improved planning and reporting.

Board of Management Oversight Framework and Management Accountability Framework
Our results (two-year comparison)