Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently celebrated a huge milestone. That’s because it’s been 50 days since Ottawa launched their plan to improve their call centre and finally address the persistent delays in response times. As part of this effort, CRA has significantly increased its capacity to handle calls. The team’s goal is to address at least 70 percent of incoming calls through mid-October. In an unusual move, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne imposed a deadline of December 11 for the CRA to fix these issues.
Maxime Guenette, the CRA’s assistant commissioner and chief service officer, stated that the agency continues to keep the minister updated on the progress of the improvement plan. This initiative couldn’t be more timely. Taxpayers are increasing their demands for services as they prepare for the next filing season.
From September 29 to October 3, CRA call centers excelled in performance. They responded to 77 percent of all incoming calls—well over their goal set for the middle of October. As described by Melanie Serjak, assistant CRA commish responsible for most of the contact centres, this target was met well ahead of schedule.
“We’ve put more agents on the phone and now we’re assessing the impact of that.” – Melanie Serjak
In answer to these challenges, the CRA has brought back hundreds of furloughed call center agents. As an added measure, they have finalized the long-term extensions of term contracts for nearly 850 existing faculty and staff. This smart use of funds will help make the agency better equipped to address its ever-growing backlog of discrimination complaints. It will improve service delivery across the board.
Marc Brière, national president of Union of Taxation Employees, congratulated the CRA for its work to improve services. He was pleased that the agency moved to restore staffing. He added that these actions are important steps toward rebuilding taxpayer trust in the agency.
The CRA has gone 25 years without significant improvements. It intends to move forward within its currently approved budget and will not be hiring more permanent staff.
“We’re operating within the parameters that we have in terms of our budget envelope.” – Melanie Serjak
For her part, Guenette agreed that the agency is headed in the right direction. A lot more work remains as they head into the peak filing season.
“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.” – Maxime Guenette
With the December 11 deadline approaching, the CRA is working to improve service, including its call centre services. They are hell-bent to get taxpayer help as fast as possible. These regular updates provided by the agency to Minister Champagne represent the agency’s commitment to transparency as it continues working to implement these important reforms.
