Finance Minister Says CRA Not Meeting Standard With Service Delays, Wants Action

Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne speaks to reporters as he arrives at a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 19, 2025. The Canadian Press/Patrick Doyle

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has directed the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to implement a 100-day action plan to address its call centres’ service delays, which he calls “unacceptable.”

“Canadians expect and deserve reliable and timely service from the Canada Revenue Agency,” Champagne wrote in a Sept. 2 letter to the Standing Committee on Finance (FINA), saying it has become “increasingly apparent” that the CRA is not meeting Canadians’ standard for service.

“We take this issue very seriously,” Champagne wrote. “That is why we have directed the Agency to implement a 100-day plan to strengthen services, improve access, and reduce delays.”

He says the direction comes after visiting CRA call centres and meeting with the agency’s leadership and workers. Champagne says he has asked the agency to take “concrete” steps to improve its service through measures such as reallocating and adding personnel, implementing a new call-scheduling system, and expanding digital services.

The finance minister says he will be available to FINA to update Canadians on the challenges the CRA is facing and the steps the agency is taking to improve service delivery, adding that CRA Commissioner Bob Hamilton is also willing to appear.

“Parliamentary committees play an invaluable role in ensuring transparency and accountability and we trust the committee will consider these ongoing issues a priority,” Champagne said.

Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson François Boileau says he is “pleased” to learn about Champagne’s request to the CRA, noting that his office has experienced a recent upsurge in complaints about the CRA’s service, especially related to its call centres.

“Although I cannot comment on the CRA’s staffing practices, I hope that any changes the CRA makes will improve services for the public,” Boileau said in a Sept. 3 statement.

He said his office recommended in its 2020-2021 annual report that the CRA provide Canadians with the option to request a callback without needing to call the centre first to avoid waiting on hold to reach an agent. The CRA didn’t pursue the recommendation due to technical limitations and the cost to upgrade its phone system, Boileau said.

Meanwhile, Tory MP Dan Albas responded to Champagne’s letter by noting that the federal government pledged to address CRA wait times in 2023.

“Recall in 2023 - the last time Liberals promised to ‘fix’ these same problems and spent $400 million in that failed process,” Albas said in a Sept. 2 post on X.

Then-Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland allocated $400 million to improving the CRA’s service delivery as part of the 2022 Fall Economic Statement. She said the funds were to “support call centre operations in the face of projected call volumes that are expected to remain above pre-pandemic levels.”

Canadian Taxpayers Federation Director Franco Terrazzano noted in a Sept. 2 post on X that the CRA has added the second greatest number of employees over the past decade. According to Statistics Canada data on federal public service employees, the CRA had 40,059 employees in 2015, which has grown to 52,499 this year, representing a growth of 12,440 employees in the last decade.

The Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) said in a July 9 release the federal government’s recent budget cuts to public service means the CRA will have to reduce its spending by $715 million by the 2028-2029 fiscal year.

In July, Champagne sent a letter to his cabinet colleagues asking them to find savings in their departmental budgets, including 7.5 percent savings starting in fiscal 2026. The cuts must increase to 10 percent in 2027 and then reach 15 percent in 2028.

The UTE called the federal government decision “alarming and unacceptable.” According to Statistics Canada, the CRA had 59,155 employees in 2024, which dropped by 6,656 employees this year. The union said this has impacted the agency’s quality of service, noting that wait times to process requests for tax return adjustments or notice of objection to an assessment often exceed 12 months.

The union called the situation in CRA’s call centres “particularly alarming,” saying there aren’t enough employees to keep up with demand.

UTE National President Marc Brière said in the release that it’s “impossible” for the CRA to reduce its budget by 15 percent without making “massive job cuts and seriously affecting the services offered to the public and businesses.”

The union called on Champagne to reconsider his decision to impose budget cuts on the CRA and to give the union the opportunity to discuss “innovative solutions to maintain public services.”

The agency extended contacts for around 850 of its call centre employees last month.