Two senior officials working at the Canada Revenue Agency say the agency surpassed its target for answering more calls from Canadians ahead of schedule.
On Sept. 2, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne set a 100-day timeline for the CRA to fix call centre delays, putting the deadline at Dec. 11. The CRA then said it wanted to answer at least 70 per cent of calls by mid-October.
Melanie Serjak, an assistant CRA commissioner responsible for most contact centres and front-line services to taxpayers, told The Canadian Press that target was surpassed by the beginning of the month.
She said between Sept. 29 and Oct. 3, CRA’s call centres answered 77 per cent of incoming calls.
The CRA reports that, between June 30 and July 4, it answered 35 per cent of calls.
The CRA said in a statement last month it would take “immediate and decisive” actions to improve services by Dec. 11, including extending the hours its online chat service is available and increasing the number of questions its artificial intelligence chatbot can answer.
Maxime Guenette, a CRA assistant commissioner and chief service officer, said the agency continuously updates the minister on the plan’s progress. He said the agency’s efforts will also continue “well beyond” the 100-day mark.
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“We’re happy that we’re on track, but lots more work to be done as we get toward filing season and we’ll continue to work to address those challenges,” he said.
The CRA’s website says it’s still working to resolve “underlying factors” that lead to service delays. They include a backlog of tax adjustments, applications and tax credit inquiries.
The agency says it’s using callback requests and robotic process automation to help tackle these issues.
To improve its services, the agency extended the term contracts for approximately 850 of its call centre agents and rehired a few hundred more, Serjak said.
Serjak said no more hiring is planned at this time and the CRA is “operating within the parameters that we have in terms of our budget envelope.”
“We’ve put more agents on the phone and now we’re assessing the impact of that,” she said.
Guenette said the agency has also hired more staff in its service feedback program to help work through a backlog of complaints.
The government’s push to improve call centre services comes after Champagne sent letters to his fellow ministers in July asking most to find savings of 15 per cent over three years in their departments’ day-to-day spending.
The Union of Taxation Employees, which launched an online campaign denouncing cuts at the CRA, said almost 10,000 jobs have been lost at the agency since May 2024, including about 3,300 call centre workers.
Marc Brière, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees, said last month the union appreciates the agency is taking actions to improve services and rehire people. But he has warned that services will only get worse without more staff, despite the CRA’s efforts.
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