Conclusion

Ultimately, all of our efforts are driven by the goal of effectively using our resources to promote compliance with tax, trade, and border requirements. While most Canadian individuals and businesses are compliant, there will always be some non-compliance, intentional or not. Our approach to ensuring compliance balances education and service with responsible enforcement. At the border, we have been devoting more attention to areas of high or unknown risk while providing better and faster service to low-risk travellers and traders. We have invested heavily in new technologies to strengthen our capacity to interdict weapons and contraband. In the tax and benefits areas, we can better target potentially non-compliant accounts for verification and we have invested more in our compliance programs, which has significantly increased revenues over the past two years. Further, in the wake of the GST/HST fraud issue, we have made a number of changes to the GST/HST registration program to reduce the potential for fraudulent claims. Based on available evidence and estimates, it is our judgement that compliance overall remains at reasonably high levels and our initiatives in the areas of service, partnerships, and operational efficiencies will foster an environment under which compliance will continue to thrive.

Date modified:

2003-10-29