Evidence of meeting #29 for Public Accounts in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON
Perfect.
If you're able to have an easier job, I'd assume that you could also then make it easier for applicants to file their tax returns and get their benefits. Is that a reasonable conclusion as well, or am I out to lunch there?
12:50 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
I think, as a general statement, that would be true. The simpler the tax system is, the easier it is to explain and the easier it is for people to understand how to get the benefits.
One thing to recognize is that as you simplify the tax system, you might be removing some provisions that are of tremendous value to certain people, so there are lots of interesting trade-offs in all of that.
As the administrator, I can say that yes, if it were simpler, it would make our job easier, and easier not just for us but for the recipients as well, in terms of understanding it.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON
Madam Chair, I'll cede the remainder of my time. That's great. Thank you very much.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly Block
Thank you very much, Mr. Lawrence.
We will now go to Ms. Yip for five minutes.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Sorry; I did not expect to have a turn, but that's fine. Don't you love it when you get caught like this?
I am going to refer to the action plan. Report reference number 4.42 indicates, “By the end of March 2021” for the first recommendation. I would like to know if you can provide an update on this recommendation about completing a review of procedures and notifying the “CRA staff of any changes to ensure clear instruction on the types of documents that are suitable for supporting eligibility”.
That would be to Mr. Hamilton.
12:55 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
Yes, Madam Chair, I'll respond, I think fully, but my colleague may want to correct me.
My understanding is that we have completed this review. We said we would do it by the end of March; there may be some small amounts of activity that we still have to complete, but my sense is that we're largely done with it.
I would just ask Frank to confirm that.
12:55 p.m.
Assistant Commissioner, Assessment, Benefit and Service Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I think you're correct.
It's a complex process. There are many things to consider. It's not just a binary thing, so we're going to review all those procedures and go from there.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Okay. I look forward to seeing the report.
The plan indicates that it is going to take some more time for the first-level agents to authenticate the information provided to process the benefit applications.
One of the examples was that “they could check whether another child associated with the same parents had been born within the previous 9 months.” Wouldn't this information already be picked up automatically by the system once it's input into the electronic database?
12:55 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
Madam Chair, I will defer to my colleagues for the technical answer. I don't know if it's Frank or Heather who would want to jump in.
12:55 p.m.
Assistant Commissioner, Assessment, Benefit and Service Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Heather, could you cover this? I don't have the answer for that.
12:55 p.m.
Director General, Benefit Programs Directorate, Assessment, Benefit and Service Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Absolutely.
Just for clarification purposes, the frontline agents who first deal with the applications are keying the information into the system. The system absolutely has controls in place to identify where there may be discrepancies or areas that would require a closer look. If a child was born within the previous nine months to the same family, that application would kick out for an assessor to do more investigation to ensure that it wasn't information in our system that was perhaps inaccurate. They would have to validate the eligibility. The agents who look at the applications at that time do have more time to do their review.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Will the amount of time first-line agents are able to expend on their initial processing of the benefit application be formalized? It was mentioned that the first-level agents have about five minutes to do the initial processing. If we want to make sure we get all the information, will that extension of time be formalized?
12:55 p.m.
Director General, Benefit Programs Directorate, Assessment, Benefit and Service Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I would like to reiterate that the accuracy of the processing of the initial applications has consistently been 99%. We have no reason to believe that more time is required by these first-line keyers to process these applications. Their sole role is to key the information that is on the application into our system. We have no record of these agents having difficulty in meeting this standard. The accuracy has been outstanding. The timeliness is also being met on a regular basis.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly Block
Thank you very much, Ms. Daniels and Ms. Yip.
That brings us to the end of our meeting.
To all of our witnesses today, thank you for joining us. It has been a great meeting with a lot of good questions and answers.
Colleagues, I want to remind you that we have had to juggle our schedule around a bit due to our extended meeting last week. This Thursday's meeting will be on report 5, the follow-up on rail safety with Transport Canada. I think you have received that notice of meeting.
Finally, if you are in agreement, it is time for us to adjourn.
Is the committee in agreement that we adjourn? I'm seeing a thumbs-up.
Thank you very much, colleagues. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
The meeting is adjourned.