One of the many irritants for the LaSalle resident who was charged for a basement that doesn’t exist is the seeming lack of accountability by the municipal tax employee in charge of his file. Taxpayers at the Federal level have also complained of the same thing.
That’s why employees with the Canada Revenue Agency must now identify themselves to anyone they speak with. To ensure that employees also maintain their privacy, they’ve all been given identification numbers for the purpose.
“This agent ID number helps establish a friendly relationship as well as a sense of accountability; it allows business owners and representatives to provide feedback; and it ensures a user-friendly experience,” says the press release that accompanied Minister of National Revenue Gail Shea’s announcement last Monday.
The measure was one of three attempts to “cut red tape” announced by the federal government last Monday.
The same day, Treasury Board President Tony Clement announced proposals to change the Food and Drug Regulations to transfer more tasks from pharmacists to pharmacy technicians. The move is expected to save eight million seven hundred thousand dollars.
Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism Maxime Bernier also announced increases in the thresholds that determine which corporations must report foreign ownership from Quebec City. Andrew Saxton, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and for Western Economic Diversification made the same announcement in Vancouver. The measure means that some 32,000 companies will no longer have to fill out annual paperwork, which will now be required only by companies with revenues of more than $200 million, assets worth more than $600 million, or that show more than a million dollars of foreign debt and equity. The government estimates that the move will save one million two hundred thousand dollars.
According to Bernier, the move is “reducing the burden of red tape on businesses so that they can do what they do best: create jobs and economic growth.”
This article appeared in the Suburban on January 23.
