Ged ontario

Hey, so I'm 19 years old living in Canada Ontario, and the reason why I don't have enough school education it's cuz the fact that they placed me in special education cuz of my autism, which I think it was a huge mistake for my school team to do this, as they kept me at low grade level over the years :/ I really would like to do IT career like become an IT specialist as I'm passionate with tech, but I do believe I would need at least a high school diploma or equivalent. If I were to continue high school I would have to spend another 3 - 4 years to get all of the credits that I need an order to graduate. So should I just aim to get a GED?

Hi all, I'm gonna start with some background info.
Im 18, and I was a dropout. My mother died, I had severe depression, my dad had heart surgery ect, blah blah you get the picture.
I recently completed my GED here in Ontario, and have been giving a lot of thought to my career, and what I wanted to do in life. I settled on the idea of being a teacher, despite how I hated school, because I like working with children, and have good patience, but above all else, I can't really picture myself doing anything else. I also have a girlfriend of two years who lives in Michigan. I spend holidays/summers there, and it's the only time I feel truly happy, but it creates an issue of me being unsure of what to do with my life, since we're still young, (18 and 17) and making it harder to commit to a job, since I'm constantly leaving the country.
I feel lost on where to start, and who to talk to for a better idea of what other requirements apart from a GED I'll need to get into a college. I don't have a guidance counselor since I'm not enrolled at a school, and I didn't find any resources online where I could talk to one for broad advice. I've decided to do school here, in Ontario, because it's way cheaper and less stressful.
So, my questions. 1. What other requirements are there to enter into a college program apart from my GED, and what steps should I take to procure them? 2. If I were to move to the states at some point down the line, would I need to re-do some education, since my degree is from Ontario, or is it normal for the degrees to hold the same weight in either country?
Thank you for reading, even if you cannot give a complete answer, any insight into next steps would be appreciated greatly, I want to take the next step into getting my life on track. :)

Hey. I’m currently a Canadian planning to study nursing at a community college somewhere in US after I get my GED. I had a few questions regarding the GED. Hoping you guys can help!
1.) I am planning to take it in either Colorado or North Dakota (neither of which have residency requirements.) Will I be fine considering I don’t live in the US, and don’t hold citizenship/green card?
2.) When signing up do I just use a fake address for the state I’m doing the test for? How does that work?
3.) Will the GED be valid for college in a states other than where I take the test? Eg. I want to study in say Texas where residency is required but I obtained my GED via North Dakota where it is not. Will my GED still be considered valid?
4.) How do I prove I am who I say I am? Do I just show my Canadian (Ontario) drivers license to them for proof? Will that suffice even though it’s not American?
Any other things I should know regarding eligibility?
Thank you guys! All help is appreciated :)

I recently passed all my tests (Ontario), and requested my transcript and certificate on the 29th of march, from the tvo.ilc portal. On the website it says it should’ve only taken 5 to 8 business days, and I am yet to receive it. I have my CFAT test on may 7th and don’t wanna have to reschedule it, cuz I have to bring all official transcripts with me. I haven’t heard of anyone else online with the same issue and was really wondering if anyone here knows anything about it.

Hello! I am in Canada, Ontario and I am looking for the best books, websites, practices and materials to ready for my GED exam. I am looking for things relevant to 2024 April and beyond in Ontario, Canada. I would like to make sure what I know is accurate to the questions being asked and in the format the GED test provides.
Thank you very much.

What are your thoughts and opinions? What would you recommend to make this resume better.

Hello everyone , I live in Ontario , I send a request to get my GED certificate on March 2 and it was suppose to take 5-8 business days for it to complete but there is no progress and it's not even processed yet there is no contact number to call them and I have send 3 emails to GED ILC but they do not respond back , I need my certificate for my job promotion its really important , does anyone know whats happening or has the same issue ?

Hello everyone , I live in Ontario , I send a request to get my GED certificate on March 2 and it was suppose to take 5-8 business days for it to complete but there is no progress and it's not even processed yet there is no contact number to call them and I have send 3 emails to GED ILC but they do not respond back , I need my certificate for my job promotion its really important , does anyone know whats happening or has the same issue ?

The sad part about trying to find a job in Ottawa Ontario is that you either need GED or drivers license to do anything and everything you could be better than the person that actually went to school for that job and it would still give it to a dirtbag that wouldn’t work

Okay, so I'm 33, 34 in April and I'm thinking about getting into the trades. I'm on Disability in Ontario because of my mental health issues which have been horrible since I was a kid. I have anxiety, depression, ADHD, and am most likely on the autism spectrum. (Don't have the money to find out for sure, so ludicrously expensive.) I'm also not a small woman by any means. I'm around 5'8" ish and I'd honestly rather not say my weight, but I'm quite large, as in size 26 pants large.
I left high school at 15 because of my mental health, got my GED at 24 when I was doing better and have been going to my local college since I was 25. I've left several programs and will not be able to get financial aid anytime soon because of that. I honestly don't think normal schooling is for me, I've always had trouble with it.
Said college has several apprenticeship opportunities, there's also a non-profit in the area that specifically helps women get into trades. The 3 from the non-profit are CNC, electrical, and construction and craft if you're wondering.
I was originally thinking welding, because I'm a creative person and though I've never really tried sculpture it's nice to know I could do that. Problem is there's no apprenticeship for that from either source. The college has a 1 year welding course, but as mentioned I won't be able to get financial aid. I may, MAY, be able to get a student line of credit if I get a co-signer, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.
Basically, I'm trying to find a trade that won't completely destroy my body, getting me into shape would be awesome, but not totally breaking me to get there would be preferable. I'm aware trades can be stressful, but a large portion of my current stress is financially based (#disabilitysucks) so "earn while you learn" will hopefully help with that.
I'm not entirely sure how this is coming across, so I feel the need to say I'm not taking the idea lightly. I'm just honestly in a bad situation and trying my best to fix it and hoping the trades might offer me that. I also want to be smart about it so I'm for any help you can give me.
Thank you in advance!

Title covers the whole point, was wondering if there were any forms I could fill out to take the GED before turning 18 in ontario.

I can't make it to any testing locations in person, and apparently Canada does not offer testing online. If I choose to go the route of taking a U.S. based test in a state with no residency requirement, will colleges in Canada even recognize that as a highschool equivalency?

I'm trying to get my GED before it's too late, apparently I have to have my test scheduled by January 31, but on the GED website I have an alert that says "Your request to schedule a test requires approval from GED Ontario. Email ged@tvo.org requesting approval to begin scheduling your test dates."
I've seen other posts on reddit that they do not respond to emails, and also do not call back if you phone them, so I'm at a loss at what to do. I also cannot purchase the Ready Tests on their websites, it gives me a Validation Error: Auth and Capture was declined, whatever that means.
I want to take the test online since my closest testing location is hours away, and I need the Ready Tests in order to do that. I've heard that I can get a GED cert by signing up as an Oklahoma or Florida applicant, but I'm not sure if this actually works or if any Canadians have actually done it, will they actually send my GED even if I pass? This is all very confusing.
Is there any way I can have these questions answered in an official capacity or do I just have to believe reddit?

Inspired by this post on getting hired at the IRS, and a break from the somewhat nihilistic posts that litter this sub, I have decided to write a comprehensive guide to my workplace: the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). As this is a very long post, I suggest only reading the parts that are of particular interest to you.
For those who don’t know, the agency administers tax, benefits, and related programs, and ensures compliance on behalf of the government of Canada and most provinces and territories.
 
About me:
I am a tax auditor who was recently promoted for the second time post-grad to the AU-1 level. My total compensation (TC) is $93k and I have 3 YOE, all with the CRA. I live in a MCOL city (Toronto & Vancouver being VHCOL). I have a degree in Finance and am pursuing my CPA, but have a long way to go.
 
Compensation:
For the purposes of this post, I have expressed TC as the sum of base salary and pension benefit (more on this under the next heading). I think this is a fair assessment as the pension is a major contributing factor to overall compensation within the government. My TC is comprised of $85k base salary, $7k employer pension contributions and a one-time $2.5k contract signing bonus distributed over the length of the new contact (4 years).
Unlike the IRS and other federal government agencies in the US, our salaries are not automatically adjusted for inflation, nor are they adjusted based on CoL of a particular region or city. Middle management and up is eligible for performance-based “at-risk pay” and a bonus (all management) totalling up to 5% of base (MG-5/6), 15% (for EX-1 to EX-3) and up to 33% of base (for DM-2 & DM-3).

Position	Salary Level	TC Range (min to max)
Individual Contributor (IC) - (ExamineAuditoOfficeSpecialist/Sector SME)	SP-5 to AU-5	$75k to $159k
Lower management (LM) - (Team LeadeManageLarge-file Case Manager)	MG-5-AFS to AU-6	$109k - $175k
Middle management (MM) - (Asst. DirectoDirectoDirector General)	EX-1 to EX-3	$145k - $245k
Upper management (UM) - (Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Asst. Comm., Dep. Comm., Comm.)	EX-4 - DM-3	$210k - $522k

Breakdown:

Position	Pay (Base + Pension + At-risk pay & bonus)
SP-5 (min IC)	$69k + $6k
AU-5 (max IC)	$144k + $15k
MG-5-AFS (min LM)	$100k + $9k + $0
AU-6 (max LM)	$158k + $17k
EX-1 (min MM)	$132k + $13k + $0
EX-3 (max MM)	$195k + $21k + $29k
EX-4 (min UM)	$190k + $20k + $0
DM-3 (max UM)	$360k + $43k + $119k

 
Pension:
The public service pension plan (PSPP) is complex and confusing, but I will try to explain the basics as simply as possible.
You and the government will both contribute equally to the pension. Between 8% and 12% of your pre-tax salary is deducted at source if you joined the plan after Jan. 1st, 2013, depending on your salary. The higher it is, the closer you will be to contributing 12% rather than 8%.
In exchange, you will receive a defined-benefit (DB) pension that is equal to 1.35% below/2% above YMPE * years of service (up to 35 years) * the average of your best 5 consecutive years. This means that an individual who worked for 35 years, was a team leader in their best 5 years and earned $131k, $134k, $137k, $140k and $143k will receive a pension of 2% * 35 * $137k = $95.9k per year upon retirement for life, indexed to inflation when coordinated with the CPP. The standard retirement age is 65. The YMPE (Yearly Maximum Pensionable Earnings) is the dollar amount at which point basic CPP is no longer withheld from your pay cheque (~$70K).
If you pass away before your spouse, they will receive 50% of your monthly pension allowance until their passing. If you have up to four children, they will also each receive 10% of your pension up to 18 years old (or up to 25 if they qualify as a student), or 20% each if your spouse passes away before you.
If you joined the pension such that you complete a minimum of 30 years before your 60th birthday (i.e., you started in your 20s and have been there ever since), you can elect to leave the public service at the later of your 55th birthday or 30th anniversary and begin to collect your pension on your 60th birthday. Since I started at 21, I will have accumulated 35 years of service by the time I’m 56. I plan on retiring at that time, living off of my own savings for 4 years and then beginning to draw from the pension penalty-free at 60.
The pension is fully indexed from the time you leave the public service, even if you don’t immediately begin to collect from it. BEWARE that the 2% per year of service includes CPP (Social Security in the US) in that calculation, so you will pay into CPP as per usual but receive only one pension payment from the government for both PSPP and CPP.
There are other fancy things you can do with your pension like taking the transfer value when you leave the public service, porting it to another government agency or crown corporation, initiating a service buyback, etc., that are beyond the scope of this post. Any questions of that nature are best answered by the folks over at CanadaPublicServants.
What’s important: Some say that a Canadian federal government pension is worth about 5% of your annual salary while others say it adds up to 30% to your total compensation. I’m not an actuary so I like to keep things simple when accounting for it in my TC, so for the purposes of this post I have valued the pension as equal to the employer contributions to the pension (so add 8% - 12% of base salary). I think this is a fair, albeit conservative estimate.
 
Benefits:
The CRA offers a comprehensive set of benefits including the standard health, dental, disability and life insurance as well as a generous parental leave top-up to Employment Insurance (EI) which replaces up to 93% of regular earnings for 37 weeks in total.
More interesting are the perks exclusive to government like leave with income averaging (LIA), which allows an employee to take up to 12 weeks off per year (unpaid) and have their remaining earnings spread out evenly across the year so that there is no interruption in pay. A former co-worker of mine used this to take the entire summer off and completely remodel his deck. I have also heard that depending on business operations, some individuals are able to take LIA every single year.
Another perk is that with management approval, you can leave the agency for up to five years for personal reasons or to pursue other career opportunities and return to your permanent position as if you had never left. This is available only once every 10 years. This is particularly useful if you want to take a risk on a new job, just in case things don’t work out as planned.
Specific to the audit branch within the CRA, the agency will reimburse you for any CPA courses, exams and dues paid while working. In my case, the agency even paid for the undergrad accounting courses that I still needed to take post-grad since I had opted for a Finance and not an Accounting degree. I was reimbursed for just shy of $6,000 in total for CPA PREP courses, exam fees and annual dues before being able to start in CPA PEP.
On the topic of CPA, the CRA has PPR approved roles as AU-1, AU-2, AU-3, and AU-4 tax auditors as well as EVR for SP-5 and SP-6 tax examiners. However, you will not meet the technical competency level 2s as an SP-5 or SP-6. Fun fact: the CRA is the single largest employer of CPAs in Ontario, with more members than the next two biggest, KPMG and Deloitte, combined.
 
Job Security:
Being a union environment, job security is top notch. Most CRA employees, excluding students and middle management (EX) and above, are represented by either the Public Service Alliance of Canada - Union of Taxation Employees (PSAC - UTE) or the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada - Audit, Financial and Scientific Group (PIPSC - AFS). Joining your respective union is mandatory. You pay union dues which amount to $870 - $1,200 per year in exchange for having union protection and them negotiating collective agreements on your behalf. As a result, mass layoffs haven’t really been a thing in government in my lifetime. Still, a serious security breach or other major violations of the employee code of conduct will get you fired instantly. Taxpayer confidentiality is of utmost importance to the agency and there’s no union protection if you mess up.
 
Time off:
The CRA offers 3 weeks of vacation leave to start which increases by 1 week around the 8th, 16th and 28th anniversary of your tenure, depending on your union contract. The maximum vacation leave is therefore 6 weeks annually. All statutory holidays are off, which should be 12 extra days per year. In addition, you get 3 weeks of sick leave, 2 personal days to use at your discretion, 6 family-related leave days of which 2 can be used for professional services (seeing your lawyebankemortgage broker, etc.) and a bunch of other one-time leaves for bereavement, marriage, domestic violence, and an extra one-time week of vacation leave upon reaching your 2-year anniversary.
Overall, in any given year, I work about 225 days or 45 weeks, and 7 weeks off with no one-timers and only the standard 3 weeks of vacation you get when you start. As an auditor, your workload is consistent year-round, which means that you should not have any issues requesting time off at any time of year. However, if you are requesting more than 3 consecutive weeks during the summer or winter break, you may need to go through extra steps to get it approved.
 
Hours:
37.5 hours per week fixed. This includes two paid 15-minute breaks a day, so really you’re working 35 hours per week (half an hour of unpaid lunch not included in the 37.5). The CRA’s hours are 7:00AM to 6:00PM and every full-time employee must work at least 7.5 hours per day somewhere in between those two times. In my experience, lower management does tend to work a few hours of free overtime (OT) each week due to their workload which increases once you hit middle management. Paid OT is available at 1.5x to 2x base hourly to individual contributors (ICs) on occasion, usually towards the end of fiscal when the annual budget for the division has not yet been fully used up.
Employees can elect to go on a compressed schedule which allows them to work more than 7.5 hours a day in exchange for every 10th day off (like every 2nd Friday). There used to be a super-compressed schedule but I don’t think that is still an option for new hires. Generally speaking, new hires must wait until their probation period of 1 year is over before being able to go compressed.
 
WFH:
Up until March 2023, most CRA staff were working from home due to Covid-19. Since April, we have been mandated to return to the office two days a week or 40% of our regular work schedule per month. The CRA uses a hoteling system which means that you notify your team leader in advance of the days you will be in the office and then book a cubicle for that day. It is first come, first served. Edit: In May 2024 it was announced that all federal public servants would begin going into the office three days per week or 60% of our regular work schedule per month.
 
Hiring:
The CRA has been hiring like crazy the past few years, now is a great time to get in with the agency. The process works a little differently in government in that you don’t necessarily apply to a specific job title but rather apply to a pool at a particular pay level (AU-1, MG-5, SP-5, etc.) which can then be used by any hiring manager to pull you and offer you a job opportunity in their section. For example, an AU-1 job posting may be used to staff positions in Income Tax, Excise Tax, Appeals, Rulings or Business Intelligence/Quality Assurance (BIQA) at the AU-1 level. This is a fantastic way to do things in my opinion and saves candidates from applying multiple times for the same pay grade.
I was told that not too long ago, an external hire could only come in as high as an AU-1, which was far below the pay range of any experienced accountant. This meant that a lot of the people applying to the agency were either those with limited professional experience in accounting (doing A/R or A/P instead) or fresh out of school grads. Thankfully, this has changed and I’ve now heard of people coming in as high as AU-4s as ex-Big 4 managers.
A typical job posting will look like this... currently down RIP. To start, you will need to meet the minimum education standards. For SP roles within audit, this means you will usually need to have passed intermediate accounting I and II. For AU roles within audit, this means advanced accounting plus any two of introductory management accounting, intermediate management accounting, audit and assurance and information technology, which are all normally part of any accounting degree since they are also prerequisites for CPA PEP.
You can check whether you have taken the required courses on CPA Ontario’s website if you did your undergrad within the province.
From there, you will need to set up your profile, upload your resume, fill out any forms and questionnaires from the job posting and submit your package. Generally, there is no cover letter required. If you meet the criteria from the job posting, you will then be placed into a pool. At that point a hiring manager may ask you to take an aptitude test (usually a Korn Ferry) or accounting knowledge test, ask you to fill out further questionnaires or invite you to an interview. Eventually you may be offered a job pending security clearance and background check. Do note that the hiring process for external candidates can take upwards of a year in some cases from start to finish.
My personal journey to the agency was that I did a 12-month internship from the summer after 3rd year of my undergrad to the end of 4th year, at which point I was offered a full-time contract. I am bilingual in a city where the rate of bilingualism is in the low teens, which made me stand out among other candidates applying for an internship.
 
Promotions:
Since this is a common misconception, let me be very clear that although being bilingual got my foot in the door, it is absolutely not a requirement for working at the agency. Most new hire auditors are not bilingual outside of the National Capital Region (NCR, Ottawa) and certain parts of Quebec.
Where being bilingual does seem to become an advantage is seeking promotions to middle management (EX) and above. The Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) employment equity reports show an overrepresentation of bilingual individuals in EX roles relative to both the Canadian and the federal government workforce. Still, it is not a blanket requirement for all directors to speak both languages and you can become a director even if you are unilingual.
Far more advantageous for audit ICs is having your CPA. Although not explicitly a requirement for advancement, you are going to be at a serious disadvantage in being promoted past AU-2 without it. The only person I’ve ever come across who was an AU-3 or higher without their CPA was a national facilitator, which is someone who delivers training courses to other employees on tax legislation or internal procedures. In my office, in any client-facing role, you’re probably going to be passed up for promotion to AU-3 for someone with their letters if you don’t have them, though in other regions and offices that have a weaker talent pool this does not seem to be the case. The same is true for audit team leaders and managers, but not for directors and up (this is where French often becomes the deciding factor instead).
The rate at which one can get promoted is quite fast, though promotions are not guaranteed in the same way they are in public accounting (PA). Nonetheless, I have been promoted twice (SP-5 -> SP-6 -> AU-1) within 3 years and this is not unheard of at the lower levels. I expect the next promotion to AU-2 to happen within 3 years from now. I also know of multiple team leaders (MG-5s) who have been promoted to their positions within 8 years of joining the agency straight out of undergrad. Again, not quite as fast as PA, but certainly not a decade-long wait at each level either.
Applying for a promotion works much the same way as external hiring but with fewer steps. You apply to a job posting, get placed in a pool, take a test and/or fill out a few questionnaires and hopefully get a job offer. I have been promoted twice and didn’t even need to do an interview or take a test either time, simply offered a promotion because I was an internal hire who qualified for the pool and had been “pre-cleared” based on my annual performance reviews. Theres a common phrase in government that bears repeating: Once you’re in, you’re in.
 
The Pay Grid:
For reference this is what I’m talking about. I did not understand it when I first started with the agency so I will try to explain how it works. When you initially get hired, you will likely start at increment 1 of whatever pay-level you are at (AU-1, AU-2, etc.). You can negotiate to start at a higher increment if you believe that you have significant prior experience or some other special skill. Once you are in the agency and being promoted internally, you can no longer negotiate which increment you continue at (more on this later).
After every year of service, you will move up one pay increment until you hit the max, this is irrespective of your work performance. In addition, every year you will also get a CoL raise which is negotiated by the union. If a contract is negotiated ahead of time, this effectively means that you will move diagonally down and to the right on the pay grid every year. Unfortunately, what usually ends up happening (as is the case right now) is that the old agreement expires before a new one is signed and you will only receive the move up in salary increment. When a new contract is signed, your pay is adjusted to the most recent effective date and you receive backpay for the difference between what you were actually paid and what you would have been paid had the new contract been in place at the time. Depending on how long the contract was expired for, this can accumulate to low 5-figure amounts.
When an individual is promoted internally, they will be placed on the new pay grid according to the following formula: 1. Take the old salary and add to it the smallest dollar difference between increments (usually between salary increments 1 and 2) of the new position. 2. Take the figure from 1.) and move along the most recent row of the new pay grid until the next available step is greater than 1.)
For example, if you are currently an AU-1, increment 5 ($75,300) and you were promoted to AU-2, you would take $79,659 (AU-2, increment 2) minus $77,012 (AU-2, increment 1) equals $2,647. We add that to the old salary of $75,300 equals $77,947. We see that $77,012 (AU-2, increment 1) is less than $77,947, so that’s too little, but $79,659 is greater than $77,947, so that’s where you would end up upon promotion. From $75,300 -> $79,659.
 
Locations:
The CRA has offices across the country in almost every province and territory. However, not all offices are created equally. Some divisions and senior specialist positions (like AU-5s) are only available in major hubs like Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton. Most offices have auditor positions up to AU-4 but in really small, remote offices I have heard they don’t even go past AU-2.
Do keep in mind that there are no CoL adjustments based on city or region, so although someone in Toronto has the potential to advance much further in their career than someone in Charlottetown, P.E.I, they will still be receiving the same rate of pay for the same work. Obviously the sweet spot is to be in Ottawa where the CoL is not horrible but CRA jobs are plentiful, especially at the director level and up.
In some cases, it is possible for an employee to physically go to an office outside of the NCR but report to HQ in Ottawa. This is particularly common in IT positions. With the advent of hybrid work, it remains to be seen whether this will become more prevalent in audit too.
 
Exit Opportunities:
Lol. For most people, the CRA is the exit opp., particularly because the longer your tenure, the exponentially more valuable the pension becomes. Having said that, from my cursory perusal of LinkedIn, quite a few ex-CRA employees have ended up at other government agencies and crown corporations. The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) for Canada and for the provinces seem particularly popular destinations. I also reckon that an employee who has traversed the spectrum of income tax, excise tax (GST/HST), international tax and transfer pricing would be valuable to any PA firm. CRA subject matter experts (SMEs) that cover a specific industry or sector (cryptocurrencies, real estate, financial institutions, public service bodies, etc.) likely could also find work in their area of expertise.
 
A Day in the Life:
An auditor’s day is largely spent working alone on working papers, calling authorized reps., and the occasional meeting with your team leader for guidance or file review. Although you will spend most days working either at home or in the office, a normal field audit will sometimes require you to visit the auditee’s place of business at least once to conduct the tour of the premises. You are also encouraged to conduct the interview and the proposal in person to build rapport with the business owners or reps. For this reason, an audit file is usually assigned to an auditor based on geographic region. An auditor based in the GTA will audit businesses in the GTA only, while one in Winnipeg will probably cover all of Manitoba. The distance to the next nearest CRA office will determine how small or large that office’s coverage area is. The agency will pay a fixed rate for meals, accommodation, mileage and travel costs, and this usually ends up being a net gain for the auditor.
 
Training:
Nearly everything that you need to know will be taught on the job including internal procedures, tax legislation, and how to use internal applications and auditing software. All you really need is a basic understanding of reading financial statements and a decent grasp of Excel. In my opinion, it is also helpful to have manually completed and filed your personal or corporate income tax return or have dealt with the agency as an outsider so you can see things from a taxpayer’s POV.
When you first join the agency, you will have a week of onboarding, where you will be placed in a class with all the other newbies and you go over the corporate and organizational stuff. Back when I started this was done in-person but now it’s all done over MS Teams. If you are in audit, you will then attend 1-2 weeks of training specific to your job duties. This usually includes the very basics of tax legislation and internal procedures. These classes of ~20 people are taught by a national or regional facilitator who is an experienced CRA auditor and it’s literally like being in high school all over again.
After that, you will begin to receive files fairly quickly and for the next 2 years or so, you will follow a learning path while working on audits simultaneously. Following a learning path means registering for a long list of courses between a few hours and a week in length tailored to your job title. You will then take them in order when they become available and fit into your schedule. You will pass each course automatically assuming you are present and participating for the entire duration.
In addition, you are supposed to be assigned a coach and job shadow for a period of time followed by them being available to help you and answer questions on your first few files. Unfortunately due to the surge in hiring during Covid, there are not enough senior auditors available for this to be possible. I was never assigned a coach which meant that I either had to figure out things myself or ask my team leader which could take a long time as they were busy on-boarding all the other new people on my team.
 
Other divisions and departments:
I’ve heard quite a few times that one of the negatives of working for the CRA is that it pigeonholes you into a life of tax audit and doing the same thing for 35 years sounds like torture. I think this is an unfair assessment. Depending on the size of your office, you will be able to segue into lots of different departments and divisions starting off in audit. I have highlighted a few down below:
Criminal Investigations. As the name suggests, these guys are responsible for determining whether the CRA, with the help of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), should press criminal charges against a taxpayer, usually for serious tax fraud and schemes. They go out to execute search warrants and get a special badge which looks awesome. I don’t think they get to carry a firearm though like the FBI special agents, so that’s a bit of a letdown.
Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch (LPRAB). This is where you will find subject matter experts on a specific tax act or industry/sector, who field ruling requests from the general public, accounting regulatory bodies and internally from other CRA departments for complex issues requiring guidance or clarity on how the legislation ought to be interpreted.
International Tax and Transfer Pricing. What makes this division so exciting is that it sometimes requires auditors to take trips internationally to determine the tax obligations of domestic and foreign-domiciled companies.
Appeals and Litigation. Although the CRA does not have any in-house lawyers, the litigations team works closely with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to win cases before the Tax Court of Canada (TCC) and the Federal Court of Appeals (FCA). The litigation officer also ultimately calls the shots about how to proceed in a case, whether to consent (settle) before trial or to go ahead in the civil matter.
 
Work environment:
Since the CRA is able to offer a competitive package to new grads relative to PA and industry, the agency can be somewhat selective in their hiring decisions. This is especially true in cities that have a reputable university providing a steady stream of candidates. The average GPA of those who were hired by the CRA from my graduating class was about the same as those that were hired at Big 4 and higher than those in PA but not Big 4. As a whole I find my co-workers to be competent and easy-going.
 
Final thoughts:
I get the impression that a large portion of the lack in job satisfaction in PA audit can be attributed to the feeling that their work is not making a tangible difference and is pointless in the grand scheme of things. In short, it’s unfulfilling. This is absolutely not the case in tax audit. Every adjustment directly contributes to government funds that — political views aside — help pay for the social programs and institutions of Canada like child care, health care, elderly care, education, public safety and infrastructure.
If it wasn’t already clear, I love my job. In particular, as a competitive person, I like the fact that I have a barometer for comparing myself with other auditors (the amount of money we collect on a file or per year). I also like knowing that the more I learn, the more experience I gain and the more effort I put in, the more money I will be able to collect on behalf of the government. Nonetheless, it is also important to recognize that in some cases, the final tax bill can be a life altering experience for owners that could cripple or even bankrupt a small business.
If there are any job postings available, you will be able to find them here... again, currently down for maintenance.
TL:DR Overall, I rate working as a tax auditor at the CRA a solid 9/10. The agency ranks highly both among other federal government departments as well as among Canadian employers as a whole and it is 100% deserved.

I'm 27, I have 7 years of experience working on camera security systems as well as alarm installation and servicing. I have worked in all settings and know my prior knowledge would come in handy. I do not have my grade 12 or GED. I have been researching the North American trade school in London Ontario, and if that may be a good fit as I did not have any college experience but some say it's just a money grab. I'm not sure if a company would hire me as an apprentice without any prior formal electrical schooling.
I am looking for advice on what your paths looked like to get you to where you are now. Thank you in advance!!

Hi there, so I have a question regarding my application to Canadian Colleges and I am a little confused since my condition is a unique one. I am a Canadian Citizen but I did my middle and high school outside of Canada in Pakistan.
Here I was doing British Patterned Education but unfortunately due to health issues I only finished my IGCSE and not AS/A Levels.
A few years later, once I was better I opted to go for a GED since it was out of school and wanted to a high school level credential (IGCSE is considered 10th grade education) and finished it in October this year. I knew that I couldn't have a gotten into a Canadian University with my GED since most didn't accept it unless I had done some additional university prep courses from ILC which I cant do in Pakistan, so I focused on Canadian Colleges instead. I saw the GED was mentioned on various Ontario College websites and how they did recognize it as equivalent to an OSSD.
Now in the middle of my application I saw the Ontario Colleges had a section for how to send GED results, I followed it and the Certificate as well as transcript were added to my account but they were unevaluated. I read the internationally trained applicant section which stated I had to have them evaluated by either ICAS or WES, googling it further I saw ppl on Quora and Reddit saying that a WES certification and GED were a similar thing which confused me.
I attended a private school here doing an international curriculum and afterwards went to a private Center to do my GED, I didn't attend any school on a Pakistani education board that it would require an international credential assessment but unfortunately it is needed.
Now should I send my OCAS application with my credentials unevaluated or will I have to get them evaluated, being out of school for a few years and having difficulty figuring out a way to send my credentials for evaluation as WES require authenticated channels to do so.
if anyone can help me Id appreciate it, it is December and times ticking on application deadlines, I've already missed a few years of my schooling and am going to college late, I don't want to lose another year.

I dropped out in 9th grade because of how depressed I was, it was a horrible decision. I am 20 years old now and I’m working a minimum wage job, I want to have my own house/family one day and be financially comfortable but I know I will never have that if I don’t get an education. I feel like I will never have a chance to go to a university now, I know I can get a GED but it’s not the same as a high school diploma and I would probably only get into community college with one because universities admissions are so competitive and the career I want to pursue requires a bachelors degree. My other option is not pursue school and become a housewife (the guy I plan to marry said I can be one if I want to) but I really don’t want to be a housewife honestly, I’ve always wanted a career but having no high school education makes it nearly impossible. I feel so stuck and discouraged so please leave your advice in the comments. I live in Ontario Canada btw.

I came here on Refugee Status and now I’m a Protected Person here. I was doing BBA in my home country but moved here before completing my graduation. Now I want to get into a university and finish my degree in Business, but I’m very confused as to what I would need. I have done O’levels and GED, I also did IELTS which has expired.
Which category would be best for me to apply, as a Mature student or Transfer? For Mature Students there is requirement that I need to have Ontario Grade 12 U Calculus & Vectors or MHF4U, MCV4U or MDM4U. How do I fulfill these requirements?
Also can anyone tell me if I get into Ontario College Advanced Diploma can I transfer credits and finish Degree from a university?
I’m hoping to start from January, your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you

UPDATE: I have been accepted as of November 2 2023
I applied to write the GED through ILC June 12th 2023. I paid the 100$. The estimated review completion date was June 30th 2023. I have called the Toronto number (416 484 2737) and the toll free number numerous times and have left five or six voicemails in total. I’m aware of their weird one hour window and always call between 1-2pm. I have selected the “call back option” twice with no follow up either. I have sent four emails to the ged@tvo.org address. All messages included the needed information such as my name, DOB, phone number, student ID, and application number. I have no idea what to do next. As far as I am aware, ILC is the only place I can write the GED in Ontario.

I completed my GED with a passing score and ordered my transcript and certificate back in June, I really need my transcript to complete my college applications and I don’t know what to do about getting them as the Ontario offices for calling is open 1 hour a day and they never answer i have also tried emailing the institution with nothing working, HELP how do I get my transcript and certificate faster so I can attend college and continue my life. Thanks for anyone that can help.

i’m canadian, so idk how many of you are familiar with it, but i had to submit an application through the ged.portal website that i was directed to, and when the application is approved, then i can write the test through the ged.com website. i’m just concerned because i have already payed for it, and when i submitted the application (july 8th) it said that the application should be finished being reviewed by july 27th, it has now been over a month since then and i haven’t heard i single thing, and on the dashboard of the portal.ged website, it still says that the application isn’t even under review yet. i know i didnt pay a scam website because the portal website i did it through is the link that you get directed to from the original ged.com website, and the same link is on the government of ontario website, it’s the only way to get your ged online in canada and i looked into it and i know i payed the right website. i was just wondering if there’s anyone familiar with writing the test online in canada, and if it’s normal for it to be taking this long. it’s rlly frustrating cuz i’ve been wanting to apply to the army for the past year now and it’s the only thing stopping me, i finally payed and i’m just sitting here waiting almost 2 months now. i’ve been studying and i’m ready to write it at any moment i just don’t know why it’s taking so long.