From: canada.revenueagency@yahoo.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency routinely failed to meet Access to Information deadlines   
   on KPMG :CRA SOTW   
      
      
   Limited disclosure to date sheds light on meetings between CRA and tax industry   
   By Harvey Cashore, Kimberly Ivany, CBC News   
      
      
   The Canada Revenue Agency routinely failed to meet deadlines under the Access   
   to Information Act after receiving requests for documents about the KPMG   
   offshore tax scandal and private lobbying meetings with the accounting   
   industry, according to a summary    
   provided by the agency itself.   
      
      
   CBC News began making requests to the federal agency more than a year ago for   
   information about compliance officials and their meetings with KPMG   
   executives, Department of Justice officials, and industry lobbyists — yet   
   deadlines to produce those    
   records have repeatedly not been met.   
      
      
   In 2013, the CRA obtained a judge's order forcing KPMG to hand over the names   
   of wealthy clients caught using an offshore tax dodge based on the Isle of   
   Man, a small European island between Ireland and England. Earlier this year   
   CBC News revealed the CRA    
   offered a secret amnesty deal to those clients to avoid paying penalties —   
   so long as they never talked about it in public.   
      
      
   In response to one CBC News request, officials issued a 360-day extension to   
   provide the materials. The agency has missed deadlines legislated under the   
   act for several other requests for information, with no indication of when the   
   results will be    
   provided.  And for one request that was eventually completed, it took CRA   
   nearly 11 months to provide just three pages.   
      
      
   "In any normal functioning, transparent system, you would have had those   
   within a few weeks," says Dean Beeby, a CBC News senior reporter specializing   
   in Access to Information requests. "Three pages, that should have been   
   delivered within 30 days or less.   
   "   
      
      
   The limited records that have been provided to CBC News suggest those that are   
   still in the pipeline may contain valuable information.   
      
      
   One set of documents describes the lobbying efforts of a former CRA senior   
   policy adviser working for accounting industry association CPA Canada to limit   
   the powers of CRA auditors. Another set of documents reveals a group of tax   
   accountants lobbied    
   senior CRA officials on tax regulation and an "enhanced" relationship with the   
   agency in the afternoon and hosted them for a private soiree at the Rideau   
   Club in the evening.   
      
   CBC’s Dean Beeby says that there’s no way of knowing when the CRA might   
   finally comply.    
      
      
   As for when the bulk of the documents might be produced, Beeby says there is   
   no way of knowing when CRA might finally comply. Beeby says the act contains   
   no penalties, so there is no incentive to provide documents in a timely   
   fashion — even when the    
   release of that information might provide the public with insight into   
   controversial issues.   
      
      
   "It's like having a highway traffic act but not hiring any cops to enforce   
   it," Beeby says. "It's on the books, but it doesn't have any consequences for   
   people who violate the law."   
   CBC News contacted the Prime Minister's Office, the national revenue minister,   
   and the CRA commissioner for comment. The PMO and the minister didn't respond   
   directly.    
      
      
   The CRA responded on behalf of Andrew Treusch, saying the commissioner is not   
   involved in the access to information system. "The ATIP process is managed   
   independently ensuring that all requests for information are handled   
   impartially and free from    
   influence," a CRA spokesperson said.   
      
      
   CRA's media office also issued a statement that says it receives more than   
   6,000 requests for information a year and processes two million pages   
   annually, which is the "second highest volume" across the federal government.   
      
      
   "The CRA makes a diligent and thorough effort to locate and retrieve all   
   requested records in a timely manner," the statement reads.   
      
      
   "At the same time, the protection of privacy and the confidential information   
   of taxpayers is also in the public interest and a high priority for the CRA."    
      
      
   During the 2015 election campaign, the Liberals promised to change the Access   
   to Information Act, including giving powers to the information commissioner to   
   order federal bodies to produce documents.   
      
      
   In November 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote "mandate" letters to his   
   new cabinet, including one to Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier that called   
   for a new era of transparency.   
      
      
   "We have also committed to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in   
   government," Trudeau's letter to Lebouthillier says. "It is time to shine more   
   light on government to ensure it remains focused on the people it serves.   
   Government and its    
   information should be open by default."   
      
      
   Vincent Gogolek, executive director of the BC Freedom of Information and   
   Privacy Association, says if the Liberals follow through, it would be a "major   
   improvement in the act."   
      
      
   He says there are ramifications to releasing information years after it is   
   first requested.   
   "At some point, information that you're interested in as a matter of   
   journalism becomes information of interest to historians. And that's something   
   we should not be allowing to have happen."   
      
      
   In 2015, the information commissioner's office reported that the CRA was the   
   second most complained about government institution in 2014-2015.   
      
      
   The report says the CRA acknowledged it had a "serious information management   
   and document retrieval problem when it comes to identifying and retrieving   
   records in response to access requests."   
      
      
   CBC News has made more than 80 access to information requests to the CRA since   
   the spring of 2015. The CRA has closed most of those files, stating it had no   
   records pertaining to those requests, or the requests contained taxpayer   
   information, which the    
   agency isn't permitted to provide.   
      
      
   Of the more than 20 requests for which the CRA has said it has documentation,   
   only a handful have been fulfilled. According to the CRA's ATIP report, 14 are   
   overdue.   
      
      
   On May 10, the Commons finance committee filed a motion requesting CRA provide   
   documents related to the KPMG Isle of Man case. Lebouthillier is scheduled to   
   testify before the committee today.   
      
      
      
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