Our File: OCG 4810-23
Date: April 2,1993
To: Senior Full-Time Financial Officers
SUBJECT: Remissions
As you may recall, both the Auditor general and parlementarians
raised concerns a few years ago about the lack of information
on remissions that was being presented to Parliament and to the
public.
The OCG and the Department of Finance thus made a joint
study which resulted in the 1991 amendments to the Financial
Administration Act that, amongst other things, expanded the
scope of remissions and streamlined the process for tax
remissions.The study also resulted in an agreement and
committment to improved disclosure.
In accordance with these committments:
- All remission orders must be published in the Canada
Gazette. (For this purpose, you must thus include a
"Request for Insertion in the Canada Gazette" form
with your submission to the Treasury Board or the Governor
in Council, as the case may be.)
- The "executive" part of the order must clearly state
which statutory criterion is being used (i.e. "public
interest" or "collection or enforcement would be
unreasonable or unjust").
- The order must be accompanied by a RAIS* or an expanded
explanatory note that:
- states the actual or estimated amount that will be
remitted over the life of the order;
- whether the criterion used is "public interest",
explains what public objective is being served and
how or why remission is in the public
interest; and
- whether the criterion used is "unreasonable or unjust",
explains why colection or enforcement is considered
unreasonable or unjust.
Signed by
J.Q. McCrindell
Deputy Comptroller General
* Principally for "class duty" or tax remissions, which should
include full details on who was consulted and the estimated
impact on both the beneficiaries of the order and their
competitors.
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