May 4, 2026
This is a companion piece to the article entitled Part 2 – Infrastructure supporting CVITP service delivery (2025 update).
Host organizations
**https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/news/2021/01/new-support-for-organizations-hosting-free-tax-clinics.html
DRR = Departmental Results Report; all CRA DRRs can be found here
CRA CVITP webpage for statistics can be found here
Absence of CRA information on host organizations’ experience: Although the CRA has this information, it does not distinguish between new and returning host organizations in its data nor does it report on the years of experience of returning host organizations.
Absence of CRA information on host organization participation: Nor does the CRA clarify if the number of host organizations it counts includes those which registered for the season but then failed to file any returns.
Volunteers
**https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/news/2021/01/new-support-for-organizations-hosting-free-tax-clinics.html
DRR = Departmental Results Report; all CRA DRRs can be found here
CRA CVITP webpage for statistics can be found here
Absence of CRA information on volunteer experience: Although the CRA has this information, it does not distinguish between new and returning volunteers in its data, nor does it report on the years of experience nor the demographic profile of returning volunteers.
Absence of CRA information on volunteer participation: Although the CRA has this information, it does not distinguish between volunteers registered and those who file returns during the season. Yet some newly registered volunteers do not do any filing in their first year as they run into problems getting their EFILE and RepID approvals or in using the UFile software. It is not clear if the CRA corrects for this in its own count; absent any correction, this would lead to overreporting on the numbers.
Volunteers at host organizations
Absence of CRA information on volunteer affiliation: The CRA provides no information on the number of volunteers who are affiliated with no host organizations or again with multiple host organizations.
Assumption about volunteer affiliation: I assume that all volunteers are affiliated with one and only one host organization.
Assumption about number of volunteers per host organization: The average AVE per host organization will probably be larger than the median as there are many small CVITP clinics across Canada run by a handful of volunteers and a relatively small number of large CVITP clinics that have many volunteers.