Every tax season, Canadians brace themselves for the same ritual: long waits, dropped calls and the hope that, when someone finally answers the phone at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the information they provide is actually correct. This year, the federal government says it has a plan hire more people.
The CRA is preparing to hire or rehire about 1,700 call centre workers over the next few months, aiming for a total of roughly 4,500 agents to manage what it expects will be a flood of taxpayer calls. On paper, that sounds reassuring. More staff should mean shorter wait times, fewer frustrated callers and better service. But the reality is more complicated.
CRA officials say this seasonal hiring is routine and necessary. During the height of tax filing season, the agency can receive more than 300,000 calls a day. Last year, it peaked at about 3,300 call centre staff, and even that wasn’t enough to keep up. Today, there are around 2,700 agents on the phones a number the agency admits is too low for what’s coming.
What makes this hiring push especially interesting is the timing. Across the federal public service, departments are warning employees about potential job cuts. Ottawa is planning to slash roughly $60 billion in program and administrative spending over the next five years. Workers at Natural Resources Canada, Finance, Crown-Indigenous Relations and other departments are already receiving notices that their jobs could be eliminated.
Against that backdrop, the CRA’s announcement feels almost contradictory. While others prepare for layoffs, the tax agency is bringing people in albeit temporarily. Officials are careful to stress that these are term contracts, designed to provide flexibility during peak periods. There are no immediate plans for workforce cuts at the CRA before the end of the year, but even agency leadership admits that decisions about permanent staffing are still under review.
Beyond staffing numbers, there’s a bigger question: does hiring more call centre workers actually fix the core problem?
The CRA proudly points to improved call-answer rates, saying the number of unique calls answered has jumped from 35 per cent to about 70 per cent, with occasional peaks above 90 per cent. That’s real progress. But answering calls is only half the battle. The quality of those answers matters just as much.
An Auditor General report released in October painted a troubling picture. After placing 167 calls over four months, auditors found that CRA agents answered only 17 per cent of individual tax questions accurately. Accuracy for business tax and benefits questions was just over 54 per cent. The CRA disputes those findings, citing its own review of more than 100,000 call recordings that showed a 92 per cent accuracy rate. Both numbers can’t reflect the same reality, and Canadians are left wondering which version to believe.
Meanwhile, the agency is pushing digital self-service tools, including an expanded GenAI chatbot, to reduce call volumes altogether. For simple questions, that may help. But taxes are personal, complex and often stressful. Many people still need and want a human being on the other end of the line who can explain things clearly and correctly.
The government has set deadlines, targets and multi-year plans. What it hasn’t fully addressed is trust. Canadians don’t just want someone to pick up the phone; they want confidence that the advice they receive won’t land them in trouble months or years later.
Hiring more call centre workers may ease the pressure this tax season. But unless the CRA can consistently deliver accurate, reliable information, it risks repeating the same cycle every year: more staff, more calls answered, and the same lingering doubt about whether taxpayers are truly being served.
