Ottawa sets 100-day timeline to fix CRA call centre delays

The federal finance minister said Tuesday he wants to address service delays at the Canada Revenue Agency within 100 days, even as Ottawa plans spending cuts across the public service.

François-Philippe Champagne set the timeline in a letter to Liberal MP Karina Gould, chair of Parliament's finance committee, which was posted to his X account Tuesday morning.

In that letter, he said it's "increasingly apparent" the CRA is not meeting Canadians' standards.

"The service delays and access challenges Canadians are experiencing from CRA call centres are unacceptable," he wrote.

Champagne said he spoke to officials at the agency and has asked the CRA to take concrete steps to address the issues with a 100-day action plan.

That could involve reallocating or adding personnel, piloting a call-scheduling system and expanding digital filing options for Canadians, he said.

The letter 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 says waiting times for Canadians calling to reach CRA agents have ballooned to as long as three and a half hours.

More than 3,000 jobs have been lost at the CRA since May of last year, the union said. It warns services will only get worse if the planned cuts materialize.

The CRA confirmed last week that it already offered extensions to 850 call centre employees whose contracts were set to expire in September.

The size of the CRA workforce grew during the pandemic and over the last few years, from just under 44,000 in 2019 to around 59,000 in 2024. 

As of 2025, employee numbers are down to around 52,500.

Taxpayers' Ombudsperson François Boileau, whose office is responsible for reviewing service-related complaints about the CRA, recently told The Canadian Press that his office is "swamped."

His office's last annual report, released in June, found around 24 per cent of complaints are related to issues with call centres.

Champagne said in his letter that he and other tax agency officials will appear at finance committee to update Parliamentarians on the work to get the CRA back up to speed.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle