Turn Around the Run Around. We Need a New Approach to Governing
The CRA withheld data from me for over 7 years after it was requested under the Access to Information act. What this data exposed would have changed lives, so we opened a complaint file on the Taxpayers Ombudsman website in early 2017.
There is no way to give a complete picture or pass detailed information through that website due to the field sizes available, but they did call, took some notes and never followed up.
In August 2017, MP Pat Kelly was made aware of my circumstances and had the CRA called and questioned on my file. The CRA stated “as a last resort, call the Taxpayers Ombudsman.”
The Taxpayers Ombudsman’s office was approached through their website again in late 2017, opening file #02145. They called, took some notes and never followed up.
David Elderfield sent information directly to the Taxpayers Ombudsman, Sherra Profit, through LinkedIn in early 2018. That note contained a link to cloud-based files outlining the details of my circumstances. Her office responded stating that it would be looked through, but we again heard nothing.
I then sent emails directly to the PMO, and they decided they would involve the office of the Revenue Minister, who did nothing until the PMO nudged five months later. She then sent a letter to my accountant who has been certified as my proxy since 2013 on this. His address and a PO Box he set up to deal with this have been on file with the CRA since 2013 as the only appropriate mailing addresses for me. The letter, after complaining that she had no current address for me, stated I could pay unpaid taxes through the collections office in Edmonton…which had nothing to do with my emails or questions.
Senator Percy Downe allowed me to send him a hardcopy of my data package in 2018. He reviewed it and stated there were concerns, then asked what he could do to assist. This was the first time I had been asked this by a government official in all the years of pursuing answers. I asked that he ensure that Sherra Profit, the Taxpayers Ombudsman, receive the hardcopy of my data. Senator Downe had that package dropped directly on Sherra Profit’s desk the next day, with his request that she review. She had a letter sent to me six weeks later, on January 25, 2019. It states that because of the Revenue Minister’s letter that we received in October, 2018, that the Ombudsman’s office had no mandate to review my material. It did not matter that it was the PMO that involved the Revenue Minister’s office, or that I had originally opened a file with the Ombudsman 18 months prior to that involvement.
In June of this year, the Revenue Minister passed the task of responding to me to Cathy Hawara, Assistant Commissioner. She spends the entire first paragraph stating she is speaking with the authority of the Revenue Minister as well as the Prime Minister himself.
What does she indicate I should do? Take it to the Taxpayers Ombudsman! So, armed with that letter, MP Pat Kelly’s office called the Taxpayer’s Ombudsman last week and was again told... it was not her mandate.
What do I want? I got what I wanted from Percy Downe, an old school Liberal. He asked what he could do, and passed the baton on to the appropriate runner, ensuring the pass was complete. This is just a matter of ownership. Those who have the matter in front of them should own it until more appropriate personnel in government have a complete pass of the data, not reject it out of hand. If the Taxpayers Ombudsman truly feels it needs passing to the Revenue Minister, she should own it until that pass is complete.
I know everyone is busy, but this ideal of ownership is a management style that improves efficiency overall, and doesn’t leave people hanging. Dropping the baton has never served anyone but the competition.
Maybe the competition won't treat citizens this way.
THIS IS OUR COUNTRY - VOTE TO KEEP IT THAT WAY.