Canada Revenue Agency directed to implement 100-day plan to address call centre delays

An Ottawa woman says she has spent hours on hold waiting to speak with someone at Canada Revenue Agency. CTV’s Shaun Vardon reports on a push to improve service

The federal finance minister is directing the Canada Revenue Agency to implement a 100-day plan to improve access and strengthen services, saying the service delays at the agency’s call centres “are unacceptable.”

In a letter to the chair of the standing committee on finance Tuesday morning, François-Philippe Champagne said it is “increasingly apparent” that the CRA is not meeting the “reliable and timely service” that Canadians “expect and deserve.”

“The Agency has been asked to take concrete steps to help Canadians get the assistance they need,” Champagne wrote. “This will include reallocating and adding personnel, piloting a new call-scheduling system, and expanding digital services, among other measures.”

Champagne says the federal government will collaborate with the private sector and unions, “to ensure that we are all working together on the same front, for Canadians.”

The union representing Canada Revenue Agency workers calls the 100-day timeframe “good news.”

“Seems that the minister has listened to our concerns and the concerns of our members in the contact centres,” Marc Brière, president of the Union of Taxation Employees, told CTV News Ottawa Tuesday afternoon.

“We’re certainly willing to work with the minister and the CRA call centre officials on the plan; it will depend what the plan is.”

The union representing CRA employees said wait times “have exploded” to as long as 3.5 hours at the CRA call centre, and “fewer than five per cent of callers are reaching an agent.”

Brière says there are “long delays” in processing taxpayers files across the Canada Revenue Agency, resulting in more calls to the call centres.

A message on the Canada Revenue Agency’s website on Tuesday said, “CRA phone lines are experiencing high call volume.”

Last month, the Canada Revenue Agency announced the contracts for 850 employees that were set to expire on Sept. 5 have been extended until March 31, 2026.

Briere said the federal government needs to hire more call centre agents to handle the higher call volumes.

“We are pleased that the agency has listened to the serious concerns we raised. However, there is still a shortage of call centre agents to handle the high volume of calls from citizens, businesses and accounting firms,” Brière said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

“Our union is calling on the CRA and the Carney government to rehire a sufficient number of agents so that we can offer Canadians the much better accessibility and high-quality service to which they are entitled.”

The Union of Taxation Employees has said over 3,000 jobs had been cut at the Canada Revenue Agency since last fall, including a decision not to renew the contracts for 1,300 call centre employees.

In May, the CRA cut up to 280 employees, mostly in the Ottawa-Gatineau area.

In July Champagne and Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali issued letters to the cabinet, directing ministers to identify savings of up to 15 per cent in all federal departments over three years. The government is aiming to find $25 billion in savings.

Brière says the situation “has gotten worse” at the Canada Revenue Agency in 2024 and 2025, and the government needs to “re-invest” in the department.

“If you’re going to cut at the CRA, you should be careful. We are already down, and I would clearly say we need more people.”

According to the Treasury Board Secretariat, 52,499 employees worked at the Canada Revenue Agency in March, down from 59,155 employees in 2024.