Yup, those were the days when we all had a collection of “Revenue Canada” numbers, and they actually answered their phones. Up until they centralized the S116 filings in Ottawa, there was a lady in the Belleville office who did these for a large part of Ontario. You could call her with questions. You wouldn’t have to check on the progress because she’d get them processed within a couple weeks or call you with questions. Now that Ottawa handles them all, we’re lucky to get them a year after they’re filed. Interestingly, that lady now works as a private consultant doing S116 applications.
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Yup - nobody answers their phone any more. I had a discussion with someone at VDP on a pre-disclosure basis and he wouldn’t leave his number…just their general phone box (but at least I have that…actually I did have it previously…I just didn’t know that’s what it was, LOL).
The only people at CRA who answer their phones regularly? Collections.
I remember, if something was being audited, the auditor cane to your office, when he was done you’d talk it over and decide on a settlement, and he’d return to his office. His supervisor would issue a letter the same day, confirming what was discussed and how the issue was resolved. Supervisors never changed or challenged the decision of their auditors. I say “he” because the only women in accounting were secretaries or accounting technicians. Women were just never encouraged to get a designation. Now, it’s at least a 50/50 split. I have noticed that we have no first nations representation, nor black, unless they’ve transferred here from the Carribean. Something the higher-ups should address.
In Toronto, where I was in the 70s with Revenue Canada, at least half of the Appeals Officers I worked with were women. Men in the more senior positions mostly. In Audit, mostly male. PubInfo was a mixed bag. (Intrerestingly the blind PubInfo Officers, with all their materials in Braille were unbelievably good.) Not many visible minorities at that time.
One of my mentors when I was articling was a female partner. (She would be in her 80’s now I expect?) She was actively discouraged when taking accounting courses at the University of Alberta. Professors would refuse to answer her questions in class unless a male student repeated them. There were no married dorms. There was only one daycare in Edmonton and it was downtown, across the river from the University, so her commute took hours to do, unlike her peers who could live on campus.
There is a reason that the only women in accounting were secretaries, and it wasn’t that they weren’t “encouraged” it was that they were actively shut out of the profession. Even in the 90’s I faced people in the profession saying that it was a waste for me to get my designation since I was just going to give it up to raise children.
And while we are 50/50 at the sole practitioner and small firm level, there are only about 5% of national partners who are women.
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