Minutes of the Technological Change Sub-Committee Meeting

Technological Change Committee
Minutes of the Technological Change Sub-Committee Meeting
November 26, 2021

BETWEEN THE CANADA REVENUE AGENCY AND THE UNION OF TAXATION EMPLOYEES

PARTICIPANTS

Management                                Union

Frank Vermaeten                                                     Brian Oldford
Gillian Pranke                                                          Greg Krokosh
Silvano Tocchi                                                          Josh Atwood
Tessie Jokinen                                                         Shirin Amiri
Michael Honcoop
Kathleen Butler                                                        
Roger Houde
Joris Graziotin

OPENING REMARKS

The UTE Regional Vice-President, Atlantic Region and co-chair of the Technological Change Committee welcomed the participants and gave an update on the composition of the committee for the union. He requested to obtain a written summary along with the issue statement prior to the meetings to allow for more context when new initiatives are being presented. He also mentioned that he wishes, if possible, to resume in-person meetings.

The Assistant Commissioner (AC) and the Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC), Assessment, Benefit and Service Branch (ABSB) welcomed the participants and kicked off the meeting.

Advancing a framework for Digital Transformation

The Assistant Commissioner (AC), Digital Transformation Program (DTP) expressed that digital transformation is key to the Agency achieving its overall strategic priorities and objectives for 2030.

The AC, DTP described the ongoing digitalization efforts to:

  • Deliver an Agency wide Centralized Event Processor
    • Events could be any type of activity on a taxpayer account and will be stored for reporting and analytics purposes.
  • Secure two-way communication
    • Identify potential solutions to address security challenges with the current use of MS Outlook to communicate and exchange Protected B information with clients.
    • Review findings and identify potential options for moving secure email forward for the Agency.
  • Eliminate paper-based process
    •  Disability tax credit (DTC) application
      • Phase 1 is a front-end application specifically for medical practitioner use. It was released on October 4th, 2021.
      • Phase 2 of the project is digital submission of a DTC application. It will allow both the individual and medical practitioner to interact with CRA in a digital space connected to our back-end systems. The target release date is May 2022.
  • Develop a CRA Digital Framework
    • This piece is the foundation in the shaping of the digital journey within the organization. The Framework will outline the CRA’s vision and governance for digital transformation.

The AC, DTP pointed-out the importance of employees being properly equipped to help with the transformation, such as, using digital skillsets which are not about the ability to use technology, but rather about clear communication, being collaborative.

The union expressed that they would like to continue receiving updates on digital transformation initiatives.

The union asked if the use of the fax will be eliminated. This is a demand from their members, especially those receiving faxes from outside of Canada. They would prefer the use of email.

The AC, DTP indicated that the Agency is looking into it and that the digital mailroom project lead by FAB could be a solution to this issue. He said that there isn’t a “one” solution that would eliminate the fax. He further noted that he didn’t think that the use of email would be the best solution.

Digital Mailroom Project (DMP)

The Director General (DG), Administration Directorate (AD) advised that the project accelerated the digitization capability to alleviate pressures caused by the pandemic related to mail, transportation, logistics and secure remote access to CRA documents in the following programs:

  • Business Number, Service Complaints and Registered Plans have been live since September 2020
  • T1 Adjustments, CPP/EI Rulings, Objections, Clearance Certifications, Specialty Business Returns since early Summer 2021

The DG, AD said that the operational process involves the Managed Service Provider (MSP) receiving CRA paper inputs, converting these inputs into digital images, applying a standard set of metadata and categorization elements, storing images and making them available in a virtual repository. As of September 30, 2021, over 165,000 packages of correspondence, representing approximately 1.8M documents have been digitized and 12,000 data elements have been extracted. All images are stored in the Document Management Portal which is compliant with all CRA Information Management, Security, and Privacy requirements.

The DG, AD indicated that the project team worked closely with the onboarding areas to ensure that users were adequately trained and well versed in its application prior to going live. This included in-depth training sessions, and working closely with both the Public Affairs Branch (PAB) and the Human Resources Branch (HRB) to develop various training tools and products to assist users on the job. This has resulted in approximately 1900 users being trained to use the portal, with another approximately 4570 users with view access. The project team is working with the initial three program areas (Business Number, Service Complaints, and Registered Plans) to fully onboard and stabilize the data extraction capability of the solution. The onboarding of Business Number and Registered Plans to the Extraction capability is expected to be stabilized in early 2022. The targeted onboarding for Service Complaints is for spring 2022. The possibility of whether the additional five programs are going to leverage the extraction capability is also currently under analysis for future scope.

The DG, AD added that the potential impacts to the workforce as a result of the extraction capability remains unknown at this time. The project team continues to work closely with HRB and onboarding programs to analyze and identify any potential impacts. As the project progresses, DMP will continue to keep the unions informed of any new developments.

The union expressed concerns regarding numerous boxes of mail correspondence recently received in Halifax and the matter of what should be scanned. The security and confidentiality of taxpayer’s information was also flagged as a potential issue. The union confirmed that the situation has already been escalated to the local management level and they are working on it.

The DG, AD, responded that he was not aware of this specific situation and that he will look into it.*

*A written clarification on this issue was given by management to the UTE committee members further to the meeting.

Digital Services Initiatives

The DG, Digital Services Directorate (DSD) said that the Agency is working towards providing consistent and seamless service to Canadians. In support of this, ABSB has undertaken some digital enhancements.

The DG, DSD said that the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) initiative continues to implement processes that positively impact employees and at the same time, improving service to Canadians. In 2021, ABSB implemented three additional RPA processes:

  • Uncashed Cheques (implemented on March 15, 2021);
  • T2 Complex Special Elections Returns (implemented on June 28, 2021); and
  • Enterprise Automated Outputs (EAO) Mailbox management (implemented on October 4, 2021. 

These new processes allow programs to focus on other more value added tasks. There continues to be no Human Resource impacts as a result of the implementation of these new processes.

The DG, DSD added that the Secure Portals Re-engineering project aims to enhance the infrastructure of the CRA secure portals to:

  • Provide improved more efficient services to clients;
  • Enable onboarding of new business lines (T3, Non-Res, etc.); and
  • Improve the responsiveness and long-term sustainability of CRA’s online digital solutions.

The DG, DSD indicated that the Progress Tracker project will provide Canadians with information on the status of their files. The project has two deliverables; the first being a generalized file tracking service on the Canada.ca pages, which was implemented in December 2019. The second deliverable is a personalized self-service offering in the secure portals. This will display the status of a client’s files, provide estimated time to completion and will also provide status change email notifications. The first Progress Tracker service is scheduled for February 2022 implementation in My Account, with others to follow in both My Account and My Business Account secure portals.

The DG, DSD added that the CRA’s Chabot service continues to be popular with Canadians. As of August 2021, the Chabot had had more than 2.2 million conversations and more than 7.2 million questions addressed, 25% of those being COVID-related. Over the course of ABSB’s online chat experiment, 7,444 of those were completed: 5,909 in English and 1,535 in French. Feedback from the agents was positive. Online chat provides additional methods for the agents to serve the public, such as sending web links to additional information that pertain to the topics of interest to taxpayers. The CRA will continue performing Chabot and online chat experiments to build on what we have learned and to better serve Canadians. The goal is to create a seamless service experience that could respond to the most common taxpayer enquiries in a digital space.

The DG, DSD concluded that she will continue to monitor and provide updates on each of these digital initiatives to the union.

The union said that the file tracking service on the Canada.ca pages is very useful for taxpayers and they will welcome further updates on the digital services initiatives.

T3 Modernization

The DG, Major Projects and System Integration Directorate (MPSID) said that the T3 modernization project is progressing as planned with three releases. In February 2021, T3 on boarded the existing individual ident system, and implemented the new online account registration process that allows clients to request a T3 number through My Account, My Business Account and Represent a Client. This online service has been used by clients to create over 16,000 T3 accounts since February 2021. As of now, construction of the core components for the second release scheduled for February 2022 is complete. User acceptance testing is underway. February 2022 begins a transition phase where T3s will merge with the established T1 pipeline process.

This will result in some changes to the way work is performed in the TCs. Tax centre employees in Sudbury and Winnipeg will use new systems, such as Data Capture and the Beneficial Ownership systems* in addition to the existing common systems (such as T1 Case) to complete their work. Some training will be required as new systems and processes are introduced. However, the technical knowledge required for T1 and T3 is very similar, and considering that employees already use many of the existing common systems, a smooth transition is expected.

After Release 2, current T3 processing activities will be maintained for those T3 returns not processed on the new systems and for all T3 reassessments. Release 3 will encompass the development of system solutions for these components. At that point, the current T3 sections will no longer exist as all of the work will be merged with T1 areas within the TCs.

The DG, MPSID advised that a review of T1 and T3 work descriptions and classifications, as well as TC organizational structures has been ongoing for some time. The DG further confirmed that current work descriptions used in T1 Processing and T3 Processing are representative of the work, and will continue to be used as they are generic, or require only a minor change to the title.

The union asked if changes are expected to the T1 and T3 jobs.

The DG, MPSID, answered that considering that the T1 and the T3 processing work is already completed within the same division in the Tax Centres, work description updates are anticipated, however no substantial changes to the job levels are expected. This will further be assessed in anticipation of Release 3.

The union asked if workload and job changes are expected as a result of the T3 automation.

The DG, MPSID, answered that the employees that used to do this manual process will continue to have other related workload and clerical duties.

*As legislation is not yet in place, Beneficial ownership functionality will not be available at this time. 

T1 Adjustments Modernization Project

The DG, MPSID indicated that this was the first time the T1 Adjustments Modernization Project was being presented at this committee. The DG explained that this project  will be build on the foundation laid out by the T1 Systems Redesign (T1SR) project by improving digital service options for taxpayers and modernizing the reassessment processing system. These changes will support the drive toward paperless workloads and improve digital services.

This will reduce the amount of manual intervention and result in shorter completion timeframes for reassessments. Digital reassessments are currently being processed within two weeks, while paper based requests take a minimum of 8 weeks. More complex reassessments can take much longer.

The T1 Adjustments Modernization Project is divided into 3 releases:

  • Release 1: 2022

Redesign the underlying Change my Return (CMR) methodology to allow taxpayers to initially provide more complete and accurate reassessment information (e.g. prompt users to correct errors and enter missing data)

  • Release 2: 2023

Redesign the electronic self-service to facilitate adjustments for all situations (e.g. previously reassessed returns, reduced restrictions) and to improve internal processing timeframes (e.g. notify taxpayers immediately when supporting documents are required)

  • Release 3: 2024

Improve the system integration by linking cross program data and enabling auto-reassessments (e.g. Disability Tax Credit)

The DG, MPSID said that the project is comprised of a number of different improvements to both digital services (CMR and Refile) and internal procedures and processes. It is anticipated that this project will facilitate an eventual reduction in the intake at the TCs. It will also see the elimination of some clerical and keying tasks. HR impacts are difficult to forecast as reductions are dependent on the take up rate of the digital services, as well as the related legislative and technological changes. HR impact analysis will be ongoing as the project progresses.

Acceptance Testing Automation (ATA)

The DG, MPSID said that regular User Acceptance (UA) testing is a critical function for the CRA as it validates that system changes function as expected before being released into production and this includes ensuring that existing systems continue to function as expected after these changes have been introduced. We typically have approximately 14 weeks to complete tens of thousands of test cases related to system changes during a major release. While regression testing is clearly a best practice for reducing risk, only a modest number of test cases can realistically be completed during the testing window. Additionally, that volume is often further reduced due to time constraints.

The DG, MPSID emphasised that UA regression testing is ideal for automation as these are repetitive test cases that can be run over and over without the need for human intervention, as opposed to new changes that require analysis to design and execute specific test cases.

In 2019 a Request for Proposal (RFP) was carried out to identify a tool that could be used to automate UA regression testing. The Micro Focus Unified Tester software tool (UFT) was selected and a pilot project to evaluate the tool’s effectiveness revealed that it meets the program needs. Plans are to implement this tool for most systems starting in 2022.The software will increase testing coverage which will reduce the risk of system changes negatively impacting the existing functionality.

The DG, MPSID concluded that this automation will not impact the work currently performed by the testers, as their attention will be redirected to higher priority and more complex UA testing.

Benefit Systems Renewal Project (BSRP)

The DG, MPSID reminded the Committee of why it was necessary to update this mission critical system to make it more responsive and facilitate the effective onboarding of new benefits and services.

The execution stage of this project began in 2012. Construction of the new benefits system was challenging due to the recurring nature of payments (month/quarterly) and the simultaneous evolution of the program.

In order to complete the build, federal, provincial and territorial partners were asked to limit program changes for a short period. Using this window of opportunity, the project team was able to complete the development for the modernized benefits system which was successfully implemented on February 8, 2021.

The DG, MPSID said that with a release of this magnitude, post-production anomalies were expected despite extensive testing. As a result, a robust process was developed to prioritize work and quickly implement fixes as needed. Since February, sustained efforts have been made to address flaws and to add the remaining pieces of functionality.

The first annual determinations were successfully completed in July 2021 for all benefit programs.  This further confirmed that the system is functioning very well.

The DG, MPSID concluded by saying that stabilization activities, such as addressing system flaws and monitoring system performance, will continue until the end of the 2021-2022 fiscal year at which time, the project will be formally closed.   

Contact Centre Technology Update

The DG, Contact Centre Service Directorate (CCSD) advised that call volumes have decreased and Contact Centre Services have recently began to see more normal pre-pandemic volumes.

The DG, CCSD mentioned that modernization efforts are ongoing and shared the following information on 4 key projects currently underway:

  • Speech Analytics
    • CCSD is piloting the use of speech analytics on the benefit enquiries line within the Hosted Contact Centre System (HCCS). The focus of the proof of concept is to use speech analytic software to try and determine why Canada Child Benefit call volumes spike in the days surrounding the payment date.
    • The results of this proof of concept will be available later this year. Depending on the results, CCSD will continue to expand the use of speech analytics within their operations to other topics.
       
  • Online Chat
    • CCSD is launching a small scale agent assisted online chat service in December 2021.
    • Once live, Canadians will be able to access agent assisted service from a limited number of Canada.ca pages.
    • The chat enquiries will be handled by a small number of existing contact centre agents who will continue to provide user feedback to the project team in order to ensure that the solution being developed meets their needs.
    • All users of the chat service will also receive a post-chat survey. The results of the survey will be analyzed to ensure client feedback is incorporated into the service design moving forward.
    • Findings and lessons learned from this pilot will be used to develop the long term strategy for fully integrating online chat into ABSB’s contact centre operations.
       
  • Enhanced Telephone Authentication
    • The last year has been challenging and the CRA has seen an increase in fraudulent activity in the phone channel. For that reason, enhancing telephone authentication is a high priority right now.
    • When someone calls the CRA today we verify their identity by asking them a series of knowledge-based questions.
    • The process is lengthy and challenging for some taxpayers, but the biggest concern is that the information required to pass these security questions can be stolen and used by people looking to commit fraud.
    • CCSD has made improvements to increase security over the phone, but it has made the identity verification process even longer and more difficult for legitimate callers.
    • A longer-term solution is required that will not only help safeguard Canadians’ information, but also make it easier for legitimate callers to gain access to the services.
    • CCSD is looking to implement an Identity & Access Management solution into the phone platform that includes voice biometric technology and other tools that can help detect and prevent fraud.
    • This project is in the early stages and CCSD will continue to provide updates as they progress through the projects lifecycle.
       
  • Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
    • The use of the RPA is intended to reduce the need for manual management of those tedious and labour-intensive processes. This is better suited for a solution that largely manages itself due to the repetitive nature of the tasks involved in the use of the Workforce Management system.
    • The RPA Centre of Expertise team in the Digital Services Directorate has completed the business analysis stage of development. There were some delays encountered but full RPA requirements documentation will be available shortly.
    • Test case development is ongoing and technological solutions are available to expedite the process in the form of test materials that can be used as data to validate and verify the changes.
    • The pilot is now entering the ITB impacting and design stage. The IT impacting exercise will provide a clear and accurate picture of when we can anticipate moving into production with these changes.

CLOSING REMARKS

The AC and the DAC, ABSB, thanked everyone for their contribution and stressed the importance of this committee. They agreed with the union’s request to provide a written summary along with the issue statement to allow for more context when presenting a new initiative.

The UTE Regional Vice-President, Atlantic Region thanked everyone for their participation.

Action Items:

  • When a new initiative is being presented, UMR/HRB will ensure that the written summary provided by management, is shared with the union in advance of the meeting.

Frank Vermaeten
Assistant Commissioner
Assessment and Benefit Services Branch
Canada Revenue Agency

 

Marc Brière
National President
Union of Taxation Employees
 

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