I want to make it absolutely clear that I believe that Revenue Canada's record on fairness has always been excellent. The Department serves as a model for other customs and revenue administrations around the world. We have appeals processes, fairness provisions, and many other policies and procedures that ensure that the rights of our clients are respected and that they can expect fairness any time they deal with us. I do not believe that there is any such thing as absolute fairness, and I don't think that we can ever be complacent about how we treat our clients. In short, we have to continually monitor and adjust so that our actions reflect our words.
Fair treatment means being open, clear, courteous, responsive, timely, and accessible.
Applying legislation fairly means applying it impartially, justly, and consistently. The process of examining our capacity for fairness and for fair treatment is an external one as well as an internal one. That is why this Fairness Initiative has been a major consultation effort. A key part of this consultation process has been the discussion paper called Ensuring Fair Customs and Revenue Administration in Canada I issued back in March. What that document did was spark discussions with Canadians and internally, with our staff, and it provided a focus for the dialogue.