Mr. Speaker, this is my first speech since being named parliamentary secretary to the Minister of National Revenue and it is a pleasure to speak on an issue so fundamental to improving service and fairness for Canadian taxpayers.
It is a pleasure to speak on a bill which seeks to uphold Canadian values while meeting the realities and opportunities of the modern era.
We live in a world of major economic and technological change. We live in a world where citizens rightly expect more creativity, accountability and efficiency from their governments.
In this world, businesses and individuals must constantly strive to find new ways to make even good things better and so must governments.
That is the real reason behind the creation of the Canada customs and revenue agency. We want to preserve the traditions of the past but we also want to develop an innovative environment that will allow us to be the best for many years to come.
Taxation, customs and the administration of trade policies represent complex areas dependent upon a great many people who do many things and do them well.
We are going to improve how we do things, even the things we already do well.
As the minister indicated so clearly in his speech, this bill is about fairness. It is about partnerships. It is about accountability. It is about saving money for taxpayers and is about modernizing our approach to meet the expectations and aspirations of Canadians.
The Minister of National Revenue will be responsible for the agency to parliament. He will continue to be responsible for administering and enforcing program legislation such as the Income Tax Act and the Customs Act. The minister will have the authority to inquire into issues raised by members of parliament on behalf of our constituents.
The minister outlined before this House the structure and duties of the board of management. Having private sector people nominated by the provinces and territories will change the system for the better. It will guarantee even more opportunities for federal-provincial co-operation. That is what Canadians expect from governments. That is what Canadians expect from elected officials.
The true measure of success for the new agency will be in its operations. We want, as the minister said, an organization with a state of mind that is state of the art. The real change will be in our approach to doing business and our approach to serving Canadians and providing them with tax and trade administration services that are second to none.
The agency we are proposing is built upon the guiding principles of service and fairness. Canadians have told us what they want. They want to deal with a more client oriented tax and customs administration. They want more personal contact and less passing the buck. They want consistent answers. They want to deal with an organization that is flexible, one that can accommodate a range of human situations.
Canadians want us to make their lives a lot simpler, from bulletins issued in plain language to business hours dealing with modern realities of working families. Agency status will allow us to improve service to Canadians by affording more flexibility in the way we manage resources.
Our generation is one that often embraces technology as a panacea for any operational challenge. In truth, technology has been a great partner in improving the way Revenue Canada does business. From electronic filing, to virtual customs approvals, to Canpass, the pre-approved pass for frequent travellers, we have used technology to improve service and to reduce costs. For every technological change though, there are far more important and real human values and principles at work.
The most important of these principles and values are trust and honesty. It is also important that complete and transparent information be provided to those we serve.
Those values and principles require that we show fairness in application and of course they require that we show consistency, accuracy and efficiency in every single transaction.
The bottom line is that human resources in the new agency will determine whether it will be leading edge and world class or just another shuffle of organizational charts. That is why we have made the management of human resources a central focus for modernization and progress.
The minister has consulted widely with Revenue Canada's employees. Since April 1997 over 10,000 of them have been actively involved in telling him how to create a new human resources framework. These hardworking public servants are decent taxpaying citizens like the rest of us. They have stressed the need for human resources management based upon values and principles, not complex rules and processes. They see the importance of simplicity and flexibility. And they want their own worth to be recognized, appreciated and respected.
It is no surprise that what our employees want, values, principles, simplicity, flexibility, recognition and respect, are what all Canadians want. Acting on these human expectations will be the true breakthrough for the new agency.
The bill before us proposes that the bulk of the human resources management functions be assumed by the board of management of the new agency. Under the legislation before the House today it will be the board of management of the agency that approves the negotiating mandates and collective bargaining agreements with unions, not the federal Treasury Board. It is the agency that will negotiate directly with its unions.
Why should the agency not negotiate with its unions? Employees will be able to tell their representatives what they want, what they think is good for them, their futures and their careers. By negotiating face to face with employee representatives, the agency's managers will hear firsthand the wishes and concerns of their people. They will be able to act firsthand on those wishes and concerns.
It is also the board of management that will establish agency staffing procedures, not the Public Service Commission. The agency will have the flexibility to design a staffing system that directly meets the needs and rightful expectations of taxpayers and the needs and rightful expectations of the employees. This is a vital advance. A simple example will show why.
As many in the House will appreciate, the employment market for computer systems and data management expertise is highly competitive. Currently it takes Revenue Canada between six and 12 months to complete a staffing action and make an offer of employment. Under the agency it will be possible to develop new staffing systems as well as a classification system and salary rates that can compete with the private sector for the professionals we need.
I will point out something else that is very important. Revenue Canada will not be privatized. The agency will continue to be an integral part of the Government of Canada's responsibilities. Employees will continue as public servants. The agency will be accountable to parliament for how it treats its overall responsibility to employees.
Five human resources design teams made up of managers, employees and union participants have completed their work on the details of important areas of the people part of the new agency: staffing and classification, recourse, training and development and employment equity. Each of these important issues is on the table for discussion. It is still too early to report to the House on what is essentially a work in progress.
However, as a result of the work of the design teams, I can tell you what Revenue Canada employees want. They want a staffing system with fewer rules. They want a gender neutral classification system. They want fewer occupational groups and levels. They want the human resource system and the work environment to encourage diversity and reflect the Canadian public they serve. They want greater emphasis placed on transferable skills and past performance. They want a simple, quick and fair system of recourse.
The agency structure that we propose will allow us to accommodate these demands. We have to co-ordinate and simplify our human resources processes so that the right person is in the right place at the right time. That is not only a matter of staffing. It is also a matter of training and development, of improving the way we work, for example, more flexible hours or flexible places of work, including work at home. It means finding ways to attract people to the jobs that need doing.
I can assure you that all Revenue Canada employees will be offered a job in the agency. They will remain public servants during and after the transition. Collective agreements in force at the time of the start-up of the agency will be carried over until they are renegotiated.
I can assure the House that all Revenue Canada employees will be offered a job in the agency. They will remain public servants during and after the transition.
Because my French is not too good I will repeat that in English because it is very important and a point that has been brought to me quite often by constituents. Agency employees will retain the same access to jobs within the public service that they now enjoy through deployment, appointment and competition.
From a human resources standpoint, the operative word is opportunity. The Canada customs and revenue agency will create a whole new set of opportunities, new types of programs and services, new working relationships and new ways of doing work. All of this means better jobs for current employees, jobs that will be more responsive to what our clients want, jobs with substance, jobs with a future.
This is not an effort to downsize the department. This is not the intention and has never been the intention. Rather, our aim is to provide Canadians with better service, the type of service they should expect from government, the type of service their hard earned tax dollars give them the right to expect.
The public servants who work at Revenue Canada are very practical people. They deal with real life situations every day of their working lives. They know what Canadians want.
They know that Canadians want even more effective and efficient service. They know Canadians want more co-operation among governments. They know Canadians want one-stop shopping. They know Canadians want streamlining of administration. They know that Canadians want tax compliance to be easier and less costly. They know that Canadians expect promptness and fairness.
They know that in an era of logarithmic change, governments must change the way they serve our citizens. They know that the public interest must always come first. They know governments must reduce overlap and duplication. And they know that the new agency will save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
The principles of the bill before the House have been endorsed by a lot of associations: the Canadian Importers Association, the Tax Executive Institute, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Canadian Society of Customs Brokers, the Alliance of Manufacturers and Exporters, l'Association de planification fiscale et financiére, the Canadian Bar Association, and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Those groups know that the Canada customs and revenue agency can be the vehicle for taking a group of highly skilled, highly motivated people to an even higher level. Those groups know, as our employees know and as all Canadians know, that governments must move to provide better service, fairer service and smarter service to taxpayers.
I urge this House to pass this bill without delay so that all Canadians can benefit from the opportunities and advantages presented by this new agency and the strength of its thousands of hard working employees.
