2025 Auditor General Report: Canada Revenue Agency Contact Centres
CRA Contact Centres Audit (2025)
The Auditor General found that the Canada Revenue Agency failed to provide Canadians with timely, accurate, and accessible information through its contact centres. Despite managing tens of millions of calls each year, service quality has sharply deteriorated, with only a fraction of calls answered within target times and widespread
misinformation provided by agents.
The report highlights a systemic focus on efficiency over accuracy, outdated and poorly managed telephony systems, and weak contract oversight that inflated costs without improving performance. Canadians are waiting longer, receiving less reliable information, and increasingly losing confidence in CRA service.
While the Agency and Shared Services Canada have committed to major reforms, including new technology, performance frameworks, and process reviews, most meaningful improvements are not expected until 2026–27, leaving Canadians to face another tax season under inadequate service conditions.
Key Facts
- CRA’s 8 contact centres handled 32 million calls in 2024–25; just over 10 million reached an agent.
- CRA’s service standard: answer 65% of calls within 15 minutes. In 2024–25, only 18% met this target (down from 49% in 2023–24).
- Average wait time: 31 minutes, nearly double the year before.
- Complaints rose 145% since 2021–22 (from 1,673 to 4,104).
- Telephony system contract (IBM/Shared Services Canada) expanded from a minimum value of $50 million to $190 million by 2025, projected to reach $214 million by 2027.
- CRA employs about 4,500 agents, down 22% from the prior year.
- Agents’ accuracy score accounted for only 9% of their total performance evaluation.
Key Findings
Poor Access and Wait Times
- In 2024–25, only 18% of calls were answered within the 15-minute standard; by June 2025, that dropped to 5%.
- CRA reintroduced call deflection, redirecting 8.6 million calls to self-service options without an option to reach an agent.
- Reduced staffing (from 5,837 to 4,547 agents) and rising call volumes (up 30%) worsened delays.
- Only northern contact centre lines (area code 867) consistently met service standards.
- Auditor testing (167 calls):
- Individual tax accuracy: 17%
- Business tax accuracy: 54%
- Benefit inquiries: 56%
- CRA’s chatbot “Charlie” correctly answered only 2 of 6 sample questions.
- CRA’s internal quality reviews overrated performance—marking 87–100% of calls as “accurate,” though the OAG found lower true rates (50–93% accuracy depending on call type).
- Only 9% of an agent’s performance score related to response accuracy; 45% related to adherence to schedule and call length, showing a focus on efficiency over accuracy.
Weak Contract and System Management
- The telephony system lacked real-time queue updates and under-estimated wait times.
- The workforce management module was never fully adopted, forcing 180,000 manual schedule changes in 2024–25.
- Vendor invoices received minimal validation—CRA and Shared Services Canada couldn’t confirm billed usage levels or review accuracy before payment.
- Contract amendments inflated costs nearly fourfold, with limited scrutiny or enforcement of penalties for outages.
Recommendations and Commitments
Recommendation | Responsible | Timeline / Commitment |
Improve caller access: Review call-handling tools and staffing; triage “MyAccount” calls separately | CRA | System and process review under way; Fall 2026 transition to new contact centre platform; Oct 2025: improved login recovery; Nov 2025: expanded AI chatbot |
Improve accuracy and evaluation: Prioritize accuracy in performance reviews and strengthen training feedback | CRA | Review framework by Sept 2026; implement automation for quality reviews Fall 2025 |
Review telephony contract lifecycle: Strengthen contract oversight and lessons learned | Shared Services Canada (SSC) & CRA | New “Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS)” contract signed July 2025; governance structure by Jan 2026 |
Ensure telephony systems meet operational needs | SSC & CRA | CCaaS contract signed July 2025; full functionality deployment supported by new oversight structure by Jan 2026 |
Enhance invoice validation and compliance with Financial Administration Act | SSC & CRA | Strengthened financial process and clearer billing under CCaaS contract by Jan 2026 |
Overall Conclusion
The Auditor General found that the CRA failed to provide timely or accurate information through its contact centres.
- Canadians waited longer, received inaccurate answers, and faced increasing frustration.
- Oversight weaknesses, outdated systems, and a misaligned performance culture drove poor results.
- While CRA and Shared Services Canada agreed with all recommendations, most reforms, including a new telephony system and improved quality framework, will not be fully implemented until 2026–27.