OTTAWA — A new report from Auditor General Karen Hogan has revealed a stunning failure in the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) customer service performance, finding that the agency’s call centres provided accurate answers to tax questions only 17 per cent of the time between February and May 2025.
The audit team placed test calls to CRA contact centres with general inquiries and found that staff were far better at handling business-related tax or benefits questions, answering them correctly 54 per cent of the time. However, when it came to individual tax inquiries, accuracy plummeted to 17 per cent, with “completeness” of responses just above 30 per cent.
The report accused the CRA of prioritizing “schedules for shifts and breaks” over ensuring that taxpayers receive accurate information, describing the agency’s support for individuals as deeply inadequate.
Hogan said she remains concerned that despite recent upgrades — including a new phone system and extended online chat hours — Canadians still face long waits and unreliable answers. “The CRA has a duty to help individuals and businesses meet their tax obligations and access benefits,” she said.
According to the report, only 18 per cent of callers reached an agent within the CRA’s service standard of 15 minutes, while the average wait time was roughly 31 minutes.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation blasted the findings, arguing the results show how “impossibly complicated” the tax code has become. “The Income Tax Act is so long and complex that virtually no one can understand it,” said Franco Terrazzano, the group’s federal director.
In response, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne defended the government’s efforts, noting that Ottawa had already implemented a 100-day plan to fix CRA call centre performance, with a December 11 deadline for improvement. “We saw that coming… we were already ahead of the game,” Champagne said, adding that the agency has rehired hundreds of agents and expanded its use of artificial intelligence to improve service.
CRA Assistant Commissioner Melanie Serjak said the agency has now surpassed its October goal of answering 70 per cent of incoming calls and is testing an AI chatbot “much like ChatGPT” to handle common tax and benefit questions.
However, Tax-Filer Empowerment Canada, representing leading tax preparation firms, said the findings confirm that the CRA has been “struggling to pick up the phone for years.” The group urged the government to partner with private industry rather than rely on “an agency which has a hard time delivering on its core mandate.”