Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm pleased to have the opportunity to appear before you today to talk about the Canada Revenue Agency's action plan on “Report 4—Canada Child Benefit—Canada Revenue Agency” of the 2021 reports of the Auditor General of Canada.
I'm accompanied by three colleagues, whom you've already introduced.
In report 4, the Auditor General of Canada noted that the CRA managed the Canada child benefit program in a way that ensured accurate and timely payments to millions of eligible families.
The Office of the Auditor General, or the OAG, also found that the CRA could improve the administration of the Canada child benefit, or CCB, program by better managing the information used to assess eligibility for the program.
Within that context, the Auditor General of Canada made two recommendations to the CRA, which we accepted.
First, the AG made recommendations to improve the administration of the CCB program. They included updating the list of documents used to assess eligibility, requiring proof of birth for all applicants and greater collaboration with other government departments to ensure eligibility of applicants.
Second, the Auditor General recommended that although the female presumption concept is a legislative requirement under the Income Tax Act, the CRA should enhance its procedures and communications to mitigate any confusion associated with this concept.
The CRA has agreed with both recommendations, and has advanced a detailed action plan—which has been shared with the committee—that includes associated timelines in order to implement the recommendations.
I am pleased to report that the CRA is acting on both recommendations.
With respect to the first recommendation, the CRA conducted a thorough review of its online documents, training materials and other procedures to ensure that Canadians are better informed about the documents required to apply for this benefit, and we will require all training materials to be updated by the end of June of this year.
Additionally, by the end of July of next year, in order to conduct a comprehensive review and meet annual spring publishing deadlines, the CRA will ensure that two key documents, the RC66 Canada child benefits application and the program and eligibility guide called “Form T4114, Canada child benefit and related provincial and territorial programs”, as well as Canada.ca web pages, are updated to reflect these changes.
The CRA will conduct a review to be completed by the end of December of this year to determine the benefits and risks of the recommendation to provide proof of birth for all CCB applications.
Finally, by the end of July 2021, the CRA will consult with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in order to determine the feasibility of receiving citizen information of CCB applicants.
With respect to the second recommendation, by the end of December 2021, the CRA will complete a review of its materials and update the aforementioned two key documents, as well as various canada.ca web pages in order to ensure applicants understand who the CRA considers to be the primary caregiver of a child, what is required for an applicant to prove they are the primary caregiver, and that only one payment per household can be issued.
In closing, I just want to highlight the importance of the CCB. In the 2019-20 fiscal year, as Mr. Dompierre mentioned, this important program allocated $24.5 billion to 3.3 million families in Canada and 5.9 million children.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm now happy to answer any questions the committee has.