Canada’s Taxpayers’ Ombudsman is responsible for ensuring all Canadians receive the professional service and fair treatment they are entitled to from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Paul Dubé was appointed as Canada’s first Taxpayers’ Ombudsman on February 21, 2008. Mr. Dubé is responsible for conducting impartial and confidential reviews of service-related complains about the CRA and ensuring that all Canadians are able to enjoy the eight service rights outlined in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights states that taxpayers are entitled to be treated professionally, courteously and fairly in both official languages. They should receive information that is complete, accurate, clear and timely, and be granted a formal review and subsequent appeal in instances where they believe the law was not applied correctly.

This position was created to support the Government of Canada’s priorities of promoting stronger democratic institutions, increased transparency and accountability, and fair treatment for all Canadians.

Acting at arm’s length from the government, the ombudsman is able to facilitate taxpayers’ access to assistance from the CRA and make recommendations on handling complaints and maximizing effectiveness of the system. The ombudsman reviews cases from an independent, objective and impartial point-of-view.

In its first year of operation, the ombudsman’s office performed case reviews of nearly 900 taxpayer complaints. Many of the reviews revealed a variety of service lapses by the CRA that were since corrected. The CRA used a number of measures including apologies, releases of seized bank accounts, payments of benefits, cessation of collection activities and recommendations to change CRA policies.

Mr. Dubé’s mandate is to provide an alternate route for taxpayers to seek assistance with complaints related to mistakes, undue delays, misleading information or staff behaviour on behalf of the CRA.

The CRA handles 26 million individual tax returns and 1.6 million corporate filings each year. While they do their best to give professional service and fair treatment to all Canadians, the ombudsman offers a final avenue of redress, without charge to the taxpayer, for those who feel the service they received was not of the quality it should have been.

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The audio version of Garry's August 17, 2009 op-ed column can be heard by clicking here