—the Canada Revenue Agency, Veterans Affairs Canada, and Industry Canada develop and use a standard methodology to report on the costs of their delivery channels and taking into consideration the Treasury Board Secretariat’s guidance on costing and sharing best practices. The Canada Revenue Agency agrees with this recommendation. We will work with our colleague departments to develop a standard methodology for costing service delivery channels by the end of fiscal 2014-15 and apply it to all program lines by end of fiscal 2015-16. An action plan with established timelines is already under way.
We expect to have a first draft of the new standard methodology for costing service by December 2014. The methodology and an agency implementation plan will be fully developed by March 2015 and the new standards applied to the programs in March 2016.
The Canada Revenue Agency is committed to delivering services to Canadians in a way that is modern, efficient, and sustainable, and that responds to evolving needs and expectations. Although online service is the preferred option, we will continue to support those Canadians who choose to file their tax and benefit returns on paper and who prefer to make their payments by cheque.
We thank the Auditor General for his work and look forward to collaborating with the Treasury Board Secretariat and other departments to facilitate the cost-effective delivery of services across the federal government.
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