The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has an unprecedented crisis on its hands with respect to its call centre. Each year, it directs about 32 million calls. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne just released an order. To that end, he gave the CRA a December 11 deadline to address these delays and improve the quality of service. The worries about call centre agents’ precision aren’t going away any time soon. We found that shockingly, only 9% of their performance evaluation score is tied to this important activity.
The CRA’s current operational model prioritizes efficiency over accuracy. Accountability mechanisms performance evaluations and productivity metrics for call center agents are only held accountable to two main standards—schedule adherence and average handle time (AHT). These metrics actually make up 45% of their total scores. This focus may be contributing to a troubling trend: taxpayers often receive inaccurate information when seeking assistance. The Auditor General’s report indicated that “such a small emphasis on accuracy does not prioritize quality service to callers seeking assistance,” highlighting a critical area for improvement.
The CRA’s business tax inquiries management and benefits question handling in their call centre is more accurate. It now has a higher accuracy rate of 54%. Taxpayers can now rely on the agency’s online chatbot for seemingly more consistent answers. The chatbot’s coverage has at least tripled — it’s able to answer a whole range of different types of questions now.
To combat existing staffing shortages, the CRA has rehired several hundred retired agents and is extending term contracts for about 850 more. Marc Brière, the national president of the Union of Taxation Employees, has expressed concern over the working conditions of the employees still working. He pointed out that the recent decrease in staffing levels has created a more difficult work atmosphere. Brière stated, “The pressure on CRA workers to answer calls in a timely manner may be affecting the quality of their responses.”
The CRA’s call centre has become a significant source of complaints, with 24% of issues reported to the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson François Boileau directly linked to call centre interactions. Boileau noted that inconsistencies in information are common, saying, “We’ve seen it that sometimes the CRA gives the wrong information to the client, or contradictory information from an agent to another.”
Critics, including every executive board member that preceded him, have been able to publicly lament the agency’s failures. David Rotfleisch, a tax lawyer I greatly respect, raised a critical concern. He firmly asserted that taxpayers shouldn’t be left without HD when they rely on guidance from the CRA. “You have no recourse. You are responsible for filing an accurate tax return and you have to do whatever you need to do to make sure that is accurate,” he stated. He went on to highlight that simply being able to call the CRA is “not good enough and is not dependable.”
Karen Hogan, the Auditor General, highlighted the discrepancies in service quality, noting that even their chatbot, named Charlie, can be more effective than live agents. “Charlie got it right 33 percent of the time, so that’s a little more accurate than reaching an agent and asking them a question about your personal taxes.” She added, “I think it just highlights that there’s a lot of room for improvement.”
Franco Terrazzano, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, called the CRA’s performance “horrendous.” He is quite the champion for tax simplification as part of the answer. He claimed that a lack of systemic issues in the agency requires major overhaul to improve taxpayer experience.
In emphasizing the need for better services and using innovation to better serve taxpayers, Minister Champagne couldn’t have been more right. He stated, “We were already ahead of the game by asking that we improve services, that we use technology, that we allocate more people because we want efficiency and at the same time, we want great services for Canadians.”
The deadline in December looms large and fast. It remains to be seen how far the CRA can go in making real changes to their call centre’s operations and restore faith with Canadian taxpayers.
