From: canadarevenue.agency@canada.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency eyeing special web page to counter negative coverage:   
   CRA SOTW   
      
   Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press    
   Published Sunday, January 18, 2015 10:37AM CST    
      
   OTTAWA -- The Canada Revenue Agency wants to set the record straight when   
   journalists fail to include its upbeat take in their stories.   
      
   A new document shows the CRA is considering a special web page to post   
   rebuttals to media coverage it doesn't like. The web page would also be a   
   place where the agency could direct journalists to a canned response if it   
   gets flooded with calls on a hot    
   topic.   
      
   Officials pitched the idea to CRA commissioner Andrew Treusch in an August   
   2014 memo.   
      
   "The purpose of this briefing note is to follow up on a discussion with your   
   office of actions that might be taken to get our positive messaging out in   
   instances where media coverage does not reflect the content we have provided,"   
   it says.   
      
   The Canadian Press obtained a copy of the memo under the Access to Information   
   Act.   
      
   The document weighed the pros and cons of the idea. On the one hand, the   
   agency saw the advantage of putting out facts and data, "both in a broad sense   
   and in instances where we are encountering difficulties in generating media   
   pickup of this information    
   and balanced coverage."   
      
   On the other hand, the CRA wants to avoid scooping journalists by posting   
   responses to their questions on its website before their stories are published   
   or broadcast.   
      
   "Constructive relationships with the media are important to the CRA's   
   compliance communications goals, as the CRA relies on the media to convey   
   information for taxpayers throughout the year, particularly during filing   
   season," the memo says.   
      
   "We also want to avoid outcomes that incur significant costs for the agency --   
   for example, as a result of the need for translation."   
      
   In the end, agency officials recommended going ahead with the plan.   
      
   "(Public affairs branch) proposes the creation of a new section in the   
   newsroom on the CRA website where the agency could post relevant, approved   
   material in instances where a journalist has written an article without   
   reflecting the CRA's input or when    
   the agency is responding to numerous media requests on a significant subject."   
      
   Officials told Treusch that if he approved of it, the new section of the   
   website could be up and running by the end of September. The commissioner   
   signed off on the idea on Aug. 8.   
      
   In the comments section, he told staff to brief the officials in the office of   
   National Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay and to ask them if they'd like a   
   similar memo.   
      
   The new section had not appeared on the agency's website as of Sunday.   
      
   CRA spokeswoman Jennifer McCabe said the idea is "still under consideration."   
      
   "The CRA puts a lot of time into the development of comprehensive responses to   
   individual media inquiries, and is always seeking new ways to provide timely,   
   relevant and factual information to all media and to Canadians," she wrote in   
   an email.   
      
      
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