As you’re reading this, it is day 57 or so of the
“100-Day Plan” to try to improve its
.
The development of a plan was announced by Minister
on Sept. 2, after
on X (formerly known as Twitter) that it was apparent the CRA was not meeting appropriate service standards for Canadians.
That statement was hardly a revelation given the deeply entrenched issues the CRA has had with its call centres. As long as I’ve been practising — 30-plus years — it’s been hard to get through to speak to an agent. But that has recently become noticeably worse.
The CRA has been updating Canadians on its progress on the
through a
. Some of the improvements are commendable, but to suggest the CRA’s systemic problems can be solved in 100 days is laughable. It will take much more time to make
necessary and sustainable improvements
.
The Taxpayers’ Ombudsman agreed in a
it released late last week, which commended the CRA for progress to date, but said that “with some processing delays far exceeding the CRA’s usual service standards, it is unlikely that the CRA will reduce the backlog to a sustainable level by the end of the 100-day period.
A longer-term commitment and adequate resources will be necessary. By reducing its processing delays, the CRA could reduce the number of calls it receives and
reduce wait times for taxpayers
.”
And now we know why Champagne directed the CRA to come up with a 100-day plan. Timing, as they say, is everything. Last week, the auditor general released its
on the findings about its CRA call centre performance audit. It’s obvious that he and CRA had received an advance copy of the report and wanted to get ahead of its findings and recommendations. It’s very damning.
Some highlights:
- “In the 2024–25 fiscal year, the agency received more than 32 million calls. To handle these inquiries, the agency relied on a workforce of about 4,500 agents as of March 31, 2025.”
- “In our 2017 audit of call centres, the (CRA’s) service standard was to have its agents answer calls within two minutes, 80 per cent of the time. However, to achieve this standard, the agency blocked a high number of calls. For the month of June 2025, the agency indicated that only five per cent of the calls were answered within 15 minutes.”
- “Between 2023–24 and 2024–25, the number of contact centre agents was reduced by 22 per cent. As of May 31, 2025, there were 3,530 agents compared with 4,547 on March 31, 2025, and with 5,837 on March 31, 2024.”
- “In fall 2024, the agency reintroduced call deflection, which redirected calls to the self-service option … without giving the caller the option to speak to an agent. For … 2024–25 … approximately 8.6 million calls were deflected.”
- “Through our testing of non-account-specific or general questions, we found that in the area of individual taxes, only 17 per cent of the answers provided were accurate.”
- “We also found that limited time was dedicated to improving accuracy and completeness through quality evaluation feedback and coaching. In 2024–25, the agency reported over 130,000 hours spent on quality evaluations which resulted in only 2,200 hours of coaching, feedback or training — under 30 minutes per agent annually.”
Again, this is a scathing report.
Point No. 5 has been getting the most attention by media — only 17 per cent of the answers were accurate — and that is concerning. However, to be fair, Canadians need to first understand that the CRA is not in the business of providing tax advice. It is in the business of administering our complex taxation statutes.
Second, it’s a stretch to think that CRA call centre agents are expected to know the answers to income tax questions posed to them on the phone. The auditor general’s report does not disclose the questions that were asked. Were they simple questions? Difficult?
In the tax world, there are not many simple questions and to put the CRA in this age of instant gratification to a standard of answering questions on the spot is debatable. Even seasoned tax professionals such as myself cringe to answer questions on the spot. If you’re a tax practitioner who is comfortable with that, well, peace be with you.
Notwithstanding, the answer to improving quality answers and service is to train agents that much better. It is shocking to me that agents receive only 30 minutes of annual training (#point No. 6).
Tax is one of the most complex subjects known to man. To have only 30 minutes of annual training to administer such complexity is foolish. That must improve and it can easily be done.
Combined with better training, the most substantive thing that can be done is for Canada to make a real effort to simplify our overall tax system. That’s easier said than done and would require a political commitment for overall tax reform that is long overdue.
The
to improving CRA’s call centres is not to add to their already bloated headcount. Having said that, the information disclosed in point No. 3 is concerning. Why would the CRA reduce the number of call agents when volumes were increasing and standards decreasing? Seems counterintuitive to me.
Obviously, there is a right number of agents who should be taking the calls and the CRA needs to get back to that fit.
The CRA’s 100-day plan should include implementing callback queues and a scheduling system, setting hard service standards, expanding the dedicated telephone service for income tax professionals, ensuring independent oversight and, as highlighted above, training its team members better.
The CRA must do better. There are about 43 days left for the CRA to prove it’s serious about improving service to Canadians, not just deflecting responsibility like it deflects calls.
Kim Moody, FCPA, FCA, TEP, is the founder of Moodys Tax/Moodys Private Client, a former chair of the Canadian Tax Foundation, former chair of the Society of Estate Practitioners (Canada) and has held many other leadership positions in the Canadian tax community. He can be reached at kgcm@kimgcmoody.com and his LinkedIn profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimgcmoody.
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