Auditor general report: Child fitness tax credit report kept hidden

The Conservative government doesn't know whetherits first-time homebuyers tax creditis working as intended, and kept the evaluation of the child fitness tax credithidden, Canada's auditor general said today in his spring report.

The tax credit for first-time homebuyershasn't been evaluated since it was introduced, despite an earlier analysis suggesting there could be some problems with it.

The same criticism applies to a textbook tax credit. Both were introduced bythe Conservatives.

Both credits were analyzed before they were introduced, with risks identified. Despite that, "the department does not have complete information to determine if these tax measures are relevant and performing as intended," the report said.

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Ferguson also concluded that the children's fitness tax credit was analyzed, with an expert panel pointing to a possible problem with that credit's implementation: not all parents could pay fitness membership fees, programs or camps in order to get the credit when they filed their taxes months later.

The panel requested a review after four years, which the department prepared, but that evaluation "was not made public," the report said.

Other findings bythe auditor general include:

• People living in remote First Nations in Manitoba and Ontario aren't guaranteed to have access to clinical and client care services, with major health and safety problems at the nursing stations, and only one of the 45 nurses evaluated finishing the five mandatory training courses chosen for the audit.
• The Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada aren't doing enough to tackle problems posed by antimicrobial resistance.
• Department of National Defence "failed to fully investigate" two complaints of values and ethics violations in the ombudsman's office, which alsohad "inadequate controls for financial, contract, and human resource management."
• Correctional Service of Canada officials recommended fewer people for early release in 2013-14 than in 2011-12, even if the offender was assessed as a low risk to reoffend, leading to an additional $91-million annual cost.
• Canada Border Services Agency has had "significant challenges" managing IT projects.

Not enough information

Ferguson's audit looked at a number of issues, including"tax expenditures" credits and deductionsused to promote specific policy objectives. These include the targeted tax deductions and credits known as boutique tax cuts, a complicated series of measures the Conservatives prefer to target specific groups of Canadians.

The audit also found the Department of Finance doesn't give Parliament enough information to allow proper oversight of tax expenditures.

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It foundinformation, like future cost projections, which isavailable for other spending, isn't available for tax expenditures.

The Department of Finance doesn't include "valuable information" that's available in other parts of the world, like the number of beneficiaries though that is sometimes provided by the Canada Revenue Agency or consolidated information about the purpose of the policy.

This is in contrast to how government departments are required to account for other spending. Countries like France and Australia, according to the auditor general, have reports that:

• Describe the tax measures.
• Discuss its purpose, future cost and number of beneficiaries.
• Link it to other spending programs.

"We believe that details such as these could improve the quality and completeness of the reporting by the Department of Finance Canada," Ferguson wrote.

Kevin Sorenson, minister of state to Finance Minister Joe Oliver, said Ferguson also found the department does a good job of analyzing tax measures.

"The government already provides twoyears of data and at the urging of the auditor general, we will provide an additional two years of data for the Canadian public and for Parliament," he said.

Low-risk prisoners kept behind bars longer

Ferguson's report also found a number of problems with how the Correctional Service of Canada treats low-risk prisoners.

CSC officials recommended fewer people for early release in 2013-14 than in 2011-12, even if the offender was assessed as a low risk to reoffend.

Eighty per cent of offenders were kept behind bars past their first eligible date for parole. That's despite the department's data showing low-risk offenders who serve longer portions of their sentences on parole in the community reintegrate better.

The audit also found more offenders are being released directly from medium- and high-security penitentiaries rather than spending time serving supervised sentences in the community on parole.

Ferguson recommends investigating why parole hearings are being postponed, especially for low-risk offenders.

It also found CSC is getting faster at getting inmates into programs, but those programsare still not delivered on time: many low-risk offenders aren't referred to programs while they're in custody.

"Most offenders did not complete their programs by the time they were first eligible for release," Ferguson said.

The report also found that the departmentsometimes usesoutdated information to assess inmates for custody and programs.

In a statement, Public Safety Minister StevenBlaneysaid he's "fully confident" both CBSA and CSC are addressing Ferguson'sfindings.

"CSC initiatives are underway to address the issues raised by the auditor general, while keeping public safety at the forefront of all decisions made."