The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is under fire after a new report from Auditor General Karen Hogan revealed that only five per cent of Canadians who called the agency’s contact centres in June received quality tax assistance.
The report, released Tuesday, also found that just 18 per cent of incoming calls this year were answered within 15 minutes—the CRA’s own service standard. Most callers waited an average of 31 minutes before connecting with an agent.
“The Canada Revenue Agency has a duty to help individuals and businesses meet their tax obligations and access benefits,” Hogan said. “I am concerned that in spite of a new call system and other improvements, Canadians are still waiting too long to get answers to their tax questions.”
Hogan’s office conducted test calls over a four-month period earlier this year, posing general inquiries to CRA representatives. The results showed the contact centres performed significantly better when handling business tax or benefits-related questions, providing accurate answers 54 per cent of the time. In contrast, the accuracy rate for individual tax questions was considerably lower.
The report also criticized the CRA for focusing more on employee scheduling and adherence to break times than on providing accurate and complete information to taxpayers.
Following mounting criticism, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne in early September gave the CRA a 100-day deadline to fix call centre delays, setting December 11 as the target date. At the time, the agency pledged to answer at least 70 per cent of incoming calls by mid-October.
According to Melanie Serjak, an assistant CRA commissioner overseeing contact centres, the agency has already surpassed that goal. To strengthen response times, the CRA extended contracts for about 850 call centre agents and rehired several hundred more.
While the CRA claims service levels are improving, the auditor general’s findings suggest that many Canadians are still struggling to get timely and accurate help with their taxes.
