The Canada Revenue Agency is adding more jobs to its Sudbury office, the federal agency announced this week.
CRA, which already employs more than 1,700 full-time equivalents position in Sudbury, plans to add another 650 FTEs. However, 107 people at the centre will lose their jobs, but can transfer into some of the new positions being moved here.
“These individuals can choose to relocate to other processing centres across the country, or accept a new position within their current location or an office within 40 kilometres,” the release said. “Employees have six months to decide if they will relocate with the work.”
The CRA has more than 40,000 employees across the country. Under the Service Renewal Initiative, as the process is known, Sudbury remains a processing centre and requires more staff because of a significant increase in processing workloads. Sudbury will also maintain a portion of the collections and verifications workload currently being done here.
A driving factor behind the changes is the fact more people are turning to the Internet to file their taxes.
“In 2016, approximately 16 per cent of Canadians filed their tax returns on paper – about a 66 per cent drop in just over 10 years,” the release said. “The CRA needs to adapt to this reality in order to continue offering world-class services that are readily accessible to all Canadians.”
The changes are expected to mean faster and more efficient processing and better handling of calls to call centres.
Under the plan, the CRA's nine processing centres across the country – Surrey, Winnipeg, Sudbury, Jonquière, Shawinigan, Summerside, and St. John's, and the two specialized Ottawa sites -- will be transitioned into seven specialized sites:
-- Winnipeg, Sudbury, Jonquière and Summerside will specialize in processing and grow in size;
-- Surrey, Shawinigan and St. John's will be converted to NVCCs and will grow using Budget 2016 funding and funding reallocated from other sites; and
-- Some work from the two specialized processing sites in Ottawa will also gradually be consolidated to other sites across the country.
“Service Renewal will improve service delivery to Canadians, offer continued opportunity to employees and ensure a strong presence in all regions of the country” National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier is quoted as saying in the release.
“This will improve the CRA's effectiveness, and strengthen its ability to deliver on the Government of Canada's mandate and better serve Canadians.”
