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Results: 1 - 15 of 139
View Kelly McCauley Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's estimates week in Ottawa, so I thought I would take a look at some of the government's spending.
We had an Order Paper question come back recently, listing thousands and millions of dollars of Canadian taxpayers' money spent on hospitality in a period of just a couple of months.
I want to start with the CRA. In their departmental plan, they state that they're deeply committed to open and honest communication and to transparency. In the Order Paper, there are 620 items of hospitality listed and over $1 million of spending, without a single detail released about the description of goods, number of employees, attendees or hospitality, except to mention a $2,100 order for Subway.
Why is the CRA transparent on nothing except for Subway sandwiches?
View Diane Lebouthillier Profile
Lib. (QC)
I can tell my colleague that, at Revenue Canada, we are very proud of the work that we have done, whether it is on the issue of tax evasion or in terms of customer service. This is also National Public Service Week. We have arranged for 8.5 million people to be able to receive the CERB.
View Irek Kusmierczyk Profile
Lib. (ON)
Great. That's very helpful. Thank you very much for that rundown.
In the allocations, TBS allocated $0.3 million to the Canada Border Services Agency and $0.4 million to the Canada Revenue Agency under vote 10 “to assess their inventory of legacy applications and build technical capacity to support their migration into more secure modern data centres or cloud services”. Why did TBS use this type of vote for that allocation?
Glenn Purves
View Glenn Purves Profile
Glenn Purves
2020-06-16 18:19
Vote 10 is used in circumstances where an item goes to Treasury Board, it's approved by Treasury Board, there's a clear line of sight as to what the initiatives are, and there's a clear line of sight on the amounts, but it's unclear precisely which departmental vote will be allocated certain funding. These are government-wide initiatives. For example, the application modernization initiative is a government-wide initiative. It applies to a whole host of different departments, but it's not until the departments themselves are actually able to identify how much they're going to identify and collect of the amount that they're able to get it. From that standpoint, it's very important to have an operating vote, a central vote like that, so that you can actually distribute to the system broadly. It effectively has that line of sight.
The other aspect of that is Phoenix damages, LGBTQ2 supports and a lot of supports where you don't know precisely which departments will receive what amounts. It's important to be able to have that central vote to be able to distribute accordingly.
View Irek Kusmierczyk Profile
Lib. (ON)
That's great, thank you very much.
I have a follow-up question. Has the COVID-19 pandemic motivated this assessment and migration to more secure and modern data centres and cloud services? Was that an ongoing project? Was it accelerated by the COVID pandemic? Could you shed some light on that?
Glenn Purves
View Glenn Purves Profile
Glenn Purves
2020-06-16 18:21
I don't know whether it has shed some light on that issue. I think that issue would probably be best carried out by our colleagues at Shared Services. I don't know, Karen, if you have a position on that or a perspective to share from that standpoint.
Karen Cahill
View Karen Cahill Profile
Karen Cahill
2020-06-16 18:21
I would suggest that we ask our colleagues at SSC as they are responsible for the whole infrastructure. As a department, we have done a lot of work towards moving to cloud services, but every department is a bit different and SSC's coordinating this initiative.
View Wayne Easter Profile
Lib. (PE)
We'll call the meeting back to order.
In the next hour we'll be meeting on the main estimates 2020-21, votes 1 and 5 under the Canada Revenue Agency, votes 1 and 5 under the Department of Finance, vote 1 under the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, and vote 1 under the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
We have with us a number of representatives from the Department of Finance, from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada.
We'll let you folks make your presentation first, then we'll go to questions.
For the information of committee members, first questions will be by Mr. Cumming, Ms. Dzerowicz, Mr. Ste-Marie and Mr. Julian.
Ms. Bess, go ahead.
View Wayne Easter Profile
Lib. (PE)
We'll call the meeting back to order and reconvene.
During this session, we're dealing with the main estimates for 2020-21: votes 1 and 5, under Canada Revenue Agency. I'd like to welcome the witnesses who are here from the Canada Revenue Agency.
Ms. Caron, I believe you have an opening statement. I will give the floor to you, and then we'll turn to questions.
Just for the benefit of the committee, the first questions will be by Mr. Morantz, Mr. Fraser, Mr. Lemire and Mr. Julian.
Ms. Caron, the floor is yours. Welcome.
Janique Caron
View Janique Caron Profile
Janique Caron
2020-06-16 18:07
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee to present the Canada Revenue Agency's main estimates for 2020-21, and to answer any questions you may have on the associated funding.
My understanding is that a copy of my full remarks, in both official languages, has been provided to the clerk. To respect the members' time and to avoid technological issues, I will be providing my remarks in one official language and will be prepared to respond in either official language.
I am accompanied today by my colleagues: Frank Vermaeten, assistant commissioner, assessment, benefit and service branch; Geoff Trueman, assistant commissioner, legislative policy and regulatory affairs branch; and Ted Gallivan, assistant commissioner, compliance programs branch.
As you are aware, the CRA is responsible for the administration of federal and certain provincial and territorial tax programs, as well as the delivery of a number of benefit programs. Each year, the agency collects hundreds of billions of dollars of tax revenue for the Government of Canada and distributes timely and accurate benefits to millions of Canadians.
It should be noted that the CRA's 2020-21 main estimates do not reflect incremental resources required for the payments or the administrative costs in support of the Government of Canada's measures to support Canadians and businesses facing hardship as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. These measures include, as you know, the Canada emergency response benefit, the Canada emergency wage subsidy and the Canada emergency student benefit, to name a few. The cost of the emergency benefit payments will be funded through statutory authorities, including those under the Department of Employment and Social Development. The funding associated with the administrative costs will be sought separately by the CRA in the coming months. Our priority is to deliver on these measures as quickly as possible.
In the meantime, to fulfill its mandate in 2021, the CRA is seeking a total of $7.9 billion for these main estimates. Of this amount, $3.5 billion requires the approval of Parliament; whereas, the remaining $4.4 billion represents forecasts for statutory authorities that are already approved under separate legislation. These statutory items include the climate action incentive payments, children's special allowance payments, employee benefit plan costs and, according to section 60 of the CRA Act, the spending of revenues received or activities administered on behalf of the provinces and other government departments.
These 2020-21 main estimates represent a net increase of $3.4 billion when compared with the 2019-20 main estimates. Almost the entire amount of this increase is related to the forecasted statutory climate action incentive payments of $3.4 billion, which returns the bulk of direct proceeds from the federal fuel charge to eligible individuals and families living in provinces that have not met the Canada-wide federal standard for reducing carbon pollution. The CRA is responsible for administering the fuel-charge component of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, which includes the climate action incentive payment.
Excluding the statutory climate action incentive payment, the agency's 2020-21 main estimates represent a net increase of approximately $33 million, or 0.7%, when compared with the 2019-20 main estimates. The largest component of this change is an increase of $69 million for collective bargaining adjustments for some 12,000 employees represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada.
Other increases to the agency's budget include a $24-million adjustment to forecasted statutory payments under the Children's Special Allowances Act for eligible children in the care of agencies and foster parents. These payments are equivalent to the Canada child benefit paid to biological and adoptive parents. There is also $27 million in incremental funding for measures to improve tax compliance that were announced in prior budgets. Thanks to the significant investment made in recent years, the CRA has expanded its tools and capacity to target clients who attempt to conceal their assets to avoid paying their share of tax.
To give you a sense of the kind of programs that are being supported by this funding, allow me to touch on some specifics. To further combat tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, the CRA has hired additional auditors, conducted outreach and education, and built technical expertise to target non-compliance associated with cryptocurrency transactions and the digital economy. Offshore audit resources have been expanded, which directly supports the fairness and integrity of the tax system by ensuring that wealthy individuals and corporations do not circumvent their tax obligations.
Improved information technology tools and systems, combined with closer international co-operation, allow the CRA to focus on the higher-risk taxpayers. Although efforts in this domain have been affected by COVID-19, preparation for the eventual full resumption of this important work is under way.
These increases are partially offset by a $49-million adjustment associated with changes in the funding profile for various measures announced in previous federal budgets, a $25-million reduction in statutory contributions to employee benefit plans and in the forecast of cost recovery revenues for initiatives administered on behalf of the provinces and other government departments, and $13 million in transfers with other government departments, including an adjustment to accommodation and real property services provided by Public Services and Procurement Canada.
In closing, the CRA is listening to Canadians, changing how it works and improving services. The resources being requested through these estimates will allow the agency to continue to deliver on its mandate to Canadians by making it easier for the vast majority of taxpayers who pay their taxes and more difficult for the small minority who do not, and by ensuring that Canadians have ready access to the information they need about their taxes and benefits.
At this time, we will be pleased to respond to any questions you may have.
View Marty Morantz Profile
CPC (MB)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just have a few questions. Regarding the climate action incentive, I understand that the budgetary allocation has essentially gone from $4.5 billion to $7.9 billion, which is a massive increase. When I first saw that, I was asking why, but it's clear that most of that $3.7 billion is for the refund of the climate action incentive.
What I'm getting hung up on though is your use of the word “majority” in your departmental plan. I think you call it “the bulk of”. My understanding, and we just had this confirmed by finance officials a few minutes ago, is that 90% of the monies collected under that program are supposed to be returned to Canadians through the climate action incentive. Can you confirm that it is actually 90%? I'm just curious why you used the word “majority”.
Geoff Trueman
View Geoff Trueman Profile
Geoff Trueman
2020-06-16 18:15
Thank you.
Yes, I can confirm that the majority is returned to the provinces and those jurisdictions. I believe, as our finance colleagues noted a little earlier this evening, that the remaining portion is available to be distributed through a number of other mechanisms, some of which may return funds to businesses, for example. That's where the remaining 10% of the allocation would go.
View Marty Morantz Profile
CPC (MB)
Okay, so when you use the word “majority”, you're saying 90%. Is that right?
Geoff Trueman
View Geoff Trueman Profile
Geoff Trueman
2020-06-16 18:16
That's subject to a final reconciliation of those amounts, but on an ongoing operative basis, that would be the target amount. That's correct.
View Marty Morantz Profile
CPC (MB)
Okay. In the Department of Finance's backgrounder, entitled “Ensuring Transparency” in 2018, it said that it would be providing an update each year on exactly how the proceeds were used. Mr. Marsland, in our last meeting, said that's never been done.
Is your department responsible for that update?
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