The Canada Revenue Agency’s contact centres provided only five per cent of callers with quality tax help in June, the federal auditor general said in a report released Tuesday.
And just 18 per cent of incoming calls this year met the CRA service standard by being answered within 15 minutes, Auditor General Karen Hogan's report said. Most callers waited an average of 31 minutes, she added.
"The Canada Revenue Agency has a duty to help individuals and businesses meet their tax obligations and access benefits,” Hogan said in a media statement.
“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 placed calls to the CRA's contact centres over four months this year, asking general questions.
The report said the call centres were better suited to addressing business tax or benefits questions, and provided accurate responses to those calls 54 per cent of the time.
They were much worse at accurately answering questions about individual taxes.
The report said the CRA seems more concerned with adhering to schedules for shifts and breaks than with the "accuracy and completeness of information they provided to callers."
On Sept. 2, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne set a 100-day timeline for the CRA to address call centre delays, setting a deadline of Dec. 11.
The CRA said at the time it wanted to answer at least 70 per cent of incoming 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 last week that its target was surpassed by the beginning of the month.
To improve its services, the agency extended the term contracts for approximately 850 of its call centre agents and rehired a few hundred more.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
