MINUTES OF THE NATIONAL UNION-MANAGEMENT CONSULTATION COMMITTEE
(NUMCC) MEETING BETWEEN THE CANADA REVENUE AGENCY (CRA) AND
THE AUDIT, FINANCIAL AND SCIENTIFIC (AFS) GROUP
April 23, 2024
OPENING REMARKS
The Commissioner welcomed everyone to the meeting and began by acknowledging the Indigenous Peoples of all the lands on which we reside. He said that this is an important meeting and that he’s happy that participants were able to meet in person. He added that the meeting provides a valuable forum for the Union-Management Approach (UMA) and contributes to solidifying the dialogue between Management and the AFS Group. He invited Management and the AFS Group to participate and collaborate during the discussions with the aim to find workable solutions and present innovative ideas, while recognizing that they may not agree on all points.
The Commissioner began by congratulating Maryse Lavigne who recently joined the Agency and was appointed as the new regional Assistant Commissioner of the Québec Region. He also congratulated Chantal Tourigny on her appointment as the regional Assistant Commissioner of the Atlantic Region.
He reiterated his congratulations on the new collective agreement signed on December 14, 2023 and acknowledged the tremendous efforts of both bargaining teams for working together in an efficient and constructive manner. He thanked the Human Resources Branch (HRB) team for the rapid and smooth implementation of the agreement following its ratification.
He further mentioned the ongoing discussions between the Joint CRA-AFS Consultation Committee that was created last summer. He was also pleased to note the progress on the terms of reference for the review panel related to the application of the Employer’s Directive on Virtual Work Arrangements and the CRA’s Requirement for on-site presence.
The Commissioner recognized that the budget is tighter this year than it has been in previous years. Nonetheless, because of the Annual Resource Alignment Process (ARAP) exercise that helped the organization to finalize its Refocussing Government Spending (RGS), he believes that the Agency has the capacity to deal with the financial constraints. He highlighted that the RGS process went well and, therefore, he does not expect major impacts on operations, programs and employees. Furthermore, there should not be any impact on service to Canadians as a result of the RGS process.
On the matter of the 2023 CRA Charitable Campaign, the Commissioner highlighted that it was again a great success with the raising of an impressive sum of $3,615,202.
In terms of recognition, he mentioned that he was happy to share that the CRA has been selected as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers, for the third consecutive year. The Agency has also been selected as one of Canada’s Top employers for Young People and has once again been recognized as one of the National Capital Region’s Top Employers.
The President, AFS Group, began by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the traditional unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People. For those of us joining on a virtual platform, he acknowledged the importance of the land, which we all call home. We do this to reaffirm our commitment and responsibility in improving relationships between nations and to improve our own understanding of local Indigenous peoples and their cultures.
He welcomed the participants to the first NUMCC meeting of 2024. He said that the union is glad to be once again able to meet in person.
He indicated that since the last meeting, the new collective agreement had been ratified. He added that its implementation had been proceeding well, and that the union is working with CRA’s negotiations and compensation teams to resolve the remaining issues.
The President from the AFS Group, pointed out what he called ‘the black cloud’, in reference to another round of government restraints. He believes that these restraints directly affect AFS Group members’ careers. He nevertheless underlined the importance, more than ever, of the openness of management to consult with the union.
He said that the national consultation team is unchanged since the last meeting.
He ended his remarks by saying that the AFS Group is looking forward to discussing with senior CRA management a number of important issues for AFS members.
- Status of the implementation of the PIPSC-AFS Group agreement and update on AFS contract revisions
The Assistant Commissioner, Human Resources Branch (AC, HRB), provided a status update on the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada for the Audit, Financial and Scientific (PIPSC-AFS Group) implementation process of the collective agreement.
The AC, HRB, indicated that she was pleased that a new collective agreement was signed between the CRA and the PIPSC-AFS Group on December 14, 2023. The agreement that was reached was a result of the hard work and dedication of both parties working diligently, and in the true spirit of interest-based negotiations to find understanding and common ground. She shared that since the signing of the agreement, the CRA has been working with all partners, including the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), to implement the provisions of the collective agreement.
She highlighted the considerable progress that has been made on the implementation of the new contract. Specifically:
- The new AFS Group rates of pay were implemented to reflect on the March 13, 2024, pay.
- The vast majority of AFS Group members received their retroactive payments two weeks later on March 27, 2024.
- Eligible AFS Group members were also paid the $2,500 lump sum allowance on March 13, 2024.
She also outlined the new leave provisions for Traditional Indigenous Practices that were implemented in the Corporate Administrative Systems (CAS). She informed that the Compensation Client Service Centre was processing a small number of cases that require manual review, and that the work is expected to be completed prior to the end of the 180-day implementation period.
The AC, HRB, mentioned the updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with respect to classification matters included in the new agreement. The MOU indicates that the Employer will provide updates to the union regarding classification modernization within six months of signing the agreement. Initial discussions between the parties took place during a meeting on March 19, 2024. In addition, another updated MOU with respect to flexible working arrangements is included in the new agreement.
In this broad perspective of implementing the new agreement, she emphasized that the union and management have first agreed to extend the existing Quebec Region Flexible Hours Guidelines and Flex System to a staggered national implementation starting with the Atlantic Region, followed by the Western Region and finally the Headquarters and Ontario Regions. This staggered implementation is to be completed within 15 months of implementation of the collective agreement. The parties also agreed to proceed with a separate six (6) month pilot project in the Quebec Region for field workers. She explained that the Quebec regional working group first met in February 2024 to review the draft project plan and initiate discussions regarding the implementation of the Flex system for field workers, and further met a second time in early April 2024 to determine the next steps.
As the Agency is working on finalizing the details of this agreement and moving forward, the AC, HRB concluded that the CRA will continue to foster positive and constructive union-management relations and work diligently with the union to identify and resolve issues.
The President, AFS Group, commented that significant progress has been made towards the implementation of the new collective agreement, and that it has been proceeding very smoothly. He acknowledged that AFS members’ wage rates have been adjusted and most retroactive salary revisions have been paid out.
However, he expressed the union’s disappointment that nothing was done to assist AFS Group members on long-term leave from the consequences of not receiving their lump sum payments, while on income loss reduction programs, such as Employment Insurance or long-term disability. The President, AFS Group, explained that the union’s members were negatively impacted for reasons beyond their control because of their health or family status. He also said that it is unfortunate that management’s insistence on avoiding duplication of lump sum payments resulted in some represented employees getting no lump sum payment at all.
He noted that despite the delays in updating time codes which caused a lot of confusion at the field level, the new codes have since been implemented and most concerns have been resolved. The union is hoping that the issue around making up unpaid leave for indigenous practices will soon be resolved.
He highlighted that the AFS Group was the first PIPSC group to have achieved full gender inclusivity in its collective agreement language. He reminded that the AFS Group and the Agency worked on this together for several rounds of bargaining, and that significant work was done this last round to complete the task. He thanked the PIPSC staff and the CRA’s Negotiations team for getting this done. He commented that this is an important accomplishment that should be recognized.
The President, AFS Group, would also like to see delays over the publishing of the new agreement and the distribution of hard copies to the union’s stewards resolved soon.
He further shared that the union and the Agency were working to implement the provisions of the Letter of Agreement on Virtual Work Arrangements (VWA).
He stressed that the union’s professional members deserve better pay raises and they certainly deserve to have their purchasing power maintained. This is paramount to the Agency being able to recruit and retain the employees needed for the Agency to thrive and serve Canadians in the future.
Despite being on opposite sides of the negotiation table, the President, AFS Group, thanked Marc Bellavance and his team for working with the union to reach the new collective agreement. He wished Marc all the best on his new assignment. In the same vein, he thanked the PIPSC-AFS negotiator, Vance Coulas, and the union’s team for all of their preparation and hard work towards reaching the agreement.
- Controlled access to online generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) websites
The Director General, Research and Innovation Lab Directorate, Service, Innovation and Integration Branch (DG, RILD, SIIB) provided a follow-up on the implementation of controlled access to online Gen AI at the Agency.
She opened the subject by mentioning that artificial intelligence has been a hot topic within the agency in the past years. She recognized SIIB’s role in the development and maintenance of AI as well recognizing the crucial role of other branches. She then explained that Gen AI has become the term for a set of applications, models, and processes designed to automatically produce content across a range of different media (such as text, images, audio, video, or a combination of them) in response to prompts provided by a user, typically in the form of text. She reminded that outputs from online Gen AI are just sophisticated reproductions of training data that is typically sourced from the Internet, and that this can lead to potential bias, both of the user and the AI generated output.
The DG, RILD, SIIB, warned to be more cautious with the use of the Gen AI, because if not used correctly, it will have impacts on the Agency and it can be damaging to the trust that Canadians place in the CRA. To prevent this situation from happening, the Agency implemented controlled access to all online Gen AI tools on January 15, 2024. She further explained that since there are a lot of unknowns around this new tool, the Agency opted to take a cautious approach and ensure organizational readiness through the controlled access to all online Gen AI. This is supported by communications, an awareness and educational campaign as well as other activities. She said that measures have been implemented reminding users about the risks and their responsibilities. To date, over 600 employees have requested exemptions to the controlled access.
The DG, RILD, SIIB, indicated that Access controls do not impact use of Gen AI tools for sanctioned business use (project-based). To increase Agency readiness to responsibly adopt Gen AI tools, she listed the following seven work streams being undertaken by an internal Tiger Team:
- Access Controls: Including monitoring and reporting on the number of exceptions approved and rejected. Categorizing and understanding the reasons for all exception requests through our existing Customized Internet Access system.
- Risk Assessment: A risk register has been developed and will be used to score identified risks and establish whether mitigation plans will be required for those risks.
- Policy instruments improvements: Guidelines for Employee Use outlines responsible use of online Gen AI will flow through the official approval mechanisms for corporate policy instruments.
- Education and Awareness Campaign:
- To source and, if necessary, create resources for education and awareness surrounding responsible use of online Gen AI for employees working in the area.
- Because this is new and because people do not necessarily understand, there are some courses available provided by the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS0 such as DDN321 and DDN243 related to Gen AI and ethics, in addition to internal online resources on the AI Hub which acts as a central repository for employee AI resources at the Agency.
- Communications Strategy: This stream has been mostly wrapped up as the majority of the work was completed prior to the implementation of controlled access.
- Popup Action Plan: A popup was added to online Gen AI sites for all who have been granted access, reminding users of their responsibilities when using these tools.
- Adoption Strategy: Developing a framework to prioritize use cases and building a strategy for how to adopt Gen AI across the Agency.
She shared that the Agency has recently completed a callout for Tiger Team membership to increase branch representation and broaden the team’s expertise. She further informed that through regular consultations with other government departments, the CRA learned that the Canada Border Services Agency has implemented the same access controls that the CRA has for online Gen AI, and Statistics Canada has reached out to the CRA to learn more about its access controls.
The DG, RILD SIIB, concluded that the Gen AI space continues to expand and change rapidly. For example, within 4 months of the Treasury Board Secretariat releasing their guidelines on Gen AI, they have already revised and republished their direction. She noted that the CRA is carefully monitoring these changes and agilely continuing to develop its understanding of the risks as well as the benefits and ensuring that employees have the necessary support/resources for how to use Gen AI responsibly.
The Commissioner believes that this is an area that has great potential for the Agency in terms of making decisions. CRA will continue to look at opportunities where AI could be further developed while taking a prude approach. Finally, the Commissioner shared feeling comfortable with the Agency’s current use of AI.
The President, AFS Group, thanked the DG, RILD, SIIB, for the update, and then shared that the union anticipates that AI will be an increasingly important issue for the union going forward, and that they will raise questions and concerns to Management as they come. He added that AI, and employee monitoring software, will be important issues for the union to address in the next round of bargaining.
The NCR-IT Region AFS Representative, asked whether the Gen AI can be used to target non-compliant taxpayers and ultimately enhance tax compliance.
The DG, RILD, SIIB, responded that Gen AI is not optimal as a predictive analytics tool; however, there are several other types of AI that the Agency is using to inform compliance programming decisions. As Gen AI continues to evolve, the agency will consider the possibility of expanding its use to several areas including consideration of tax compliance.
- People Strategy
In the introduction of the topic, the Commissioner said that the Agency is doing well in terms of diversity and inclusion, as part of People Strategy, but recognized that there are still miles to travel to fully include diversity. The AC, HRB, provided an update on the Agency People Strategy.
She mentioned that the pursuit of a People Strategy for the Agency is one of HRB top priorities. She believes people are at the heart of strong organizations. She recalled having shared the initial vision of the Strategy in the materials in advance of the annual Workforce Planning Advisory Committee meeting in September of 2023, to which both unions were invited. She explained that the vision for the Agency is one that nurtures a spirit of exploration, collaboration, and inclusion. One that leverages people, data, technology, and workplace flexibilities to facilitate change, foster organizational resilience, and support employee growth.
The AC, HRB, pointed out that the vision was developed to look at the current state, or the diagnostic, to find out the gaps in terms of what is working well, and identifying what isn’t working and needs to change, before building a strategy or implementing solutions. She shared that employees across the Agency engaged in conversations to provide their thoughts on the People Strategy. Discussions also took place at management level, and consultations were held with external stakeholders in the HR Community.
The diagnostic revealed that the CRA’s foundation is strong, yet adapting and evolving in response to a dynamic external and internal environment is imperative to ensure continued relevance and success. What was heard from employees is that putting people first works; that People First is well understood in serving Canadians. The diagnostic highlights the fact that employees have noticed that focusing on service to clients means improved outcomes.
The AC, HRB, detailed the four founding elements of the diagnostic:
- Change management: For organizations to remain relevant, embracing change is both inevitable and necessary.
- Effective skills management: Ensuring employees have the right skills for their jobs will be a key factor in supporting the agency’s priority to nurture a high-performing, diverse, and inclusive workforce. Skills management includes not just attracting, developing, and retaining talent in a highly competitive job market, but also ensuring technical capacity to deliver programs.
- A culture of continuous feedback: Regular feedback enhances employee engagement and satisfaction, identifies areas for improvement, supports employee development, and fosters communication, transparency, retention, and skills management. Ensuring that a proper process for feedback is in place is key to the success of our strategy. Feedback loops touch in inclusion, diversity and feeling valued and a sense of belonging. The organization should be able to use the information that comes from employees much faster to implement the desired changes.
- Leadership: Over time, the evolving landscape of leadership responsibilities has significantly heightened the demands on managers. They are expected to adapt swiftly, while upholding leadership skill sets amidst growing responsibilities. This has led to a situation where managers are struggling to meet these ever-increasing expectations. The AC, HRB, recognized that there might be situations where managers are left by themselves. There might also be occasions where they demand more management training because they need clarity on what is expected of them, what to prioritize, what decisions are within their level of authority and how they are supported in making those decisions. She added that the diagnosis reveals that the leadership aspect is going quite well in the Agency but the basic management skills may need to be reinforced.
The AC, HRB, concluded by saying that she is hopeful to have a final draft of the People Strategy ready by June 2024, and that she will continue to keep the unions apprised of the progress.
The President, AFS Group, thanked the AC, HRB, for the update, and he is looking forward to meeting with her in the upcoming months to discuss this strategy.
- GC Cloud Strategy update
The Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Information Technology Branch (DAC, ITB) provided an update on the impacts of the GC Cloud Strategy at the Agency.
The DAC, ITB, said that the objective of the update is to share a brief summary of the changes to the GC Cloud Strategy and the approach taken to position the Agency. He reminded that the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Office of the Chief Information Officer (TBS, OCIO) and Shared Services Canada (SSC) announced changes to the Cloud Computing Strategy for the Government of Canada on November 3, 2023. The new strategy aims to make improvements in 3 key areas:
- Financing model
- Governance model
- Procurement model.
He explained that SSC would centrally manage all funding for application hosting, whether for the cloud or on-premises. Application hosting will be governed by the TBS, OCIO, until the departments and agencies have demonstrated maturity in the field. Larger, longer-term contracts will be established to reduce purchasing risks. He added that this will also drive changes to the way the Agency operates in the cloud, and that any potential impact on employees will be considered during the planning process.
The DAC, ITB, shared that the TBS, OCIO and SSC are starting mobilization activities with departments and agencies in the form of workshops and working groups. ITB will have a representative for each of the working groups. In response to this announcement, ITB has launched cross-functional working groups, with leads identified for the following areas of work:
- Procurement: The team will develop, among other things, minimum viable requirements, an interim approach for non-contract/service order workloads, and solicitation strategies.
- Finance: The team will contribute to the funding model, prepare necessary recommendations for the Resource Management Committee, and influence the interim approach established by SSC.
- Communication: The team will develop a Communications Plan and a Change Management Plan including tactical activities to support the people’s side of change.
- Operating model: The team will analyze and evaluate the operating model to develop an enterprise-wide “GC/CRA cloud operations concept”. This concept will be based on various cloud consumer personas including roles, responsibilities and team interactions.
- Projects and cloud suitability criteria: The team will, among other things, review and analyze the impacts on CRA projects based on provisional processes and procedures and the final state. The team will also develop the risk/issue and mitigation log, and participate in defining cloud suitability criteria.
He underlined that the objectives of the working groups are not only to evaluate the impacts of the announcements on the Agency but to prepare recommendations to influence upcoming decisions.
To manage risks and problems, ensure good decision-making and establish an escalation mechanism with senior management, the DAC, ITB, informed that the Branch developed a new DG committee and a new governance framework. This was launched on January 18th, 2024, to inform stakeholders of the way forward and interim states.
He concluded by indicating that although some activities have started in all streams, the majority of activities are in the early stages.
The NCR-IT Region AFS Representative, commented that transitioning from the current system to a cloud-based system could introduce additional complexity for AFS members, potentially limiting their access due to geographical constraints or system design considerations.
According to the Commissioner, before implementing changes, the Agency scrutinizes them to ensure there are no impacts on the organization.
The President, AFS Group, thanked the DAC, ITB for the update. He looks forward to receiving more information, as well as further discussing the Agency’s GC Cloud Strategy after this meeting, stressing a particular interest in any impacts on AFS members.
- Employee transfers
The President, AFS Group, expressed the union’s concern about the period of time it takes to onboard employees transferred from other federal government departments and agencies. He emphasized that the delays in the Agency getting compensation files from the pay centre appear to be a minimum of two years, which for this to be the service standard, is unacceptable. As a result of this, it means that they are not paid the CRA-AFS wages, overtime is not paid, and access to leave reports is restricted. He added that the Agency does have a work around for leave, as they will forward an amount that complies with a member’s years of service. However, amounts in leave banks are not accessible.
He mentioned understanding that the Agency is handcuffed by the Treasury Board but shared that it is still the Agency’s responsibility to ensure that the collective agreement is adhered to. He added that it is also CRA’s responsibility to ensure that all leave provisions are properly complied with and that proper pay is paid to the member, in a reasonable amount of time. He insisted that two plus years is not reasonable.
The President, AFS Group, suggested that the Agency requests a screenshot of leave balances from the new member when transferring from the core, and forward amounts equal to those balances, or that the member can estimate what they had in the balance. If they used more than actual, then they would go into a negative amount when the Agency eventually gets the file from the core. In that same vein, the Agency should be able to pay overtime by estimating what the member’s pay rate should be. Any adjustments from the estimates to the actual can be made after receiving the file from the core.
He acknowledged that this may create a situation where a member could be in the negative when final adjustments are made, but it should be more important to the Agency to uphold their legal obligation of properly paying their employees. He further objected to the fact that the AFS members are underpaid and that proper leave is not provided for two years or more, believing that any overpayments can be recovered from the first available funds.
The AC, HRB, explained that due to the way the Phoenix Pay System works, CRA is not able to access pay accounts for transferring employees until the former department processes their transfer out. However, the Agency regularly escalates transfers with the Pay Centre when the delays become unreasonable or when there are other individual factors that warrant escalation. She shared that the CRA has made changes to the Corporate Administrative System that allow employees with a pending transfer to key timesheets and obtain system accesses required for their jobs. While recognizing that there are still many limitations related to processing pay transactions for affected employees such as the inability to process change in hours, acting appointments or any other pay-related actions until the transfer is completed. She highlighted that the Agency continuously raises this issue with PSPC and The Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer (OCHRO) and is looking for options to lessen the impacts on employees.
The AC, HRB, mentioned the option to alleviate the inability to access accrued leave that is allowing employees to provide a personal copy of their leave report from their former department, which could be used to update their leave balances at the CRA. In other words, this option would allow employees to start using their leave balances until the transfer is completed. Once the transfer is completed and the Agency has the leave report from the former department, proper adjustments can be made, as required. She informed that this process is under review for feasibility.
She concluded by saying that the Agency will continue to escalate the transfer issue with PSPC in hopes of improving the overall process and to reduce delays.
The President, AFS Group, stated understanding that the blame does not simply lay on the Agency, however, two years or more is not acceptable. He added that any other employer would be expected to meet basic standards to correctly pay employees and provide correct leave accrual balances. He urged the Agency to do more.
The Commissioner responded that despite the challenges, the Agency does better than other departments and agencies in the Public Service and will continue, recognizing that employees should not be penalized by the pay system. He concluded by indicating that the Agency recognizes the issue.
- New functional program
The Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Programs Branch (AC, CPB) provided an overview of the new Platform Economy Compliance Program.
The AC, CPB, started by reminding that in recent years, especially with the occurrence of the pandemic, there has been a rise in the number of taxpayers using online platfo