It’s been more than 80 days since one of the most exciting days in Canadian tax history, with another couple of weeks to go until we
see the results
. As the Pointer Sisters famously
, “I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it. I’m about to lose control and I think I like it.”
What, you don’t know what I’m talking about? Finance Minister
François-Philippe Champagne
on Sept. 2 made a bit of a surprise
that Canadians deserved better from the
Canada Revenue Agency’s call centres
. He said he had
instructed the CRA
to come up with a
100-day plan
to improve. The 100th day is Dec. 11. That’s the day that Canadians are going to finally see, after all these years, a
new and improved CRA
.
But hold on a second. Is such excitement warranted?
For those of us in the tax business, we’ve been dealing with poor call centre service for decades. The COVID-19 period made it significantly worse. The CRA started hiring tons of new agents, their staff were all working from home (with obvious distractions and non-professionalism on full display), calls were answered on cellular phones (with dropped calls being routine with no callbacks) and there was no scheduling system. To top things off, the new hires were so obviously not well-trained.
Combine all that with a recent noticeable decline in the ability to connect with a CRA call agent and the frustration
among Canadians and their tax advisers
was at a boiling point.
On Oct. 21 — 49 days into the 100-day plan — the auditor general released a
about its findings regarding CRA call centres and the resulting comments were
blistering
. Champagne and the CRA were obviously provided a preliminary copy of the report, so they wanted to get ahead of the damaging findings by launching the 100-day program back in September instead of actually being proactive. To do something proactive would mean to recognize and respond to the problems that Canadians and their tax advisers have been complaining about for decades.
The CRA has been keeping Canadians up-to-date with a
that has been tracking progress on its announced to-dos. Some of the improvements are pretty good. For example, the number of answered calls has substantially increased. There is also now a limited ability to schedule callbacks when dealing with certain matters and there have been some improvements to its digital offerings.
However, it’s obvious there is still a long, long way to go to bring CRA service standards into the current century.
For example, the CRA said its goal is to answer 70 per cent of calls by mid-November and it appears to be happy since its current rate is now above that. The CRA may not have the capacity to answer 100 per cent of calls — it emphatically said this on its website — but setting a goal of anything less than that is not acceptable.
Also, dealing with systemic and root causes of the problems is ultimately what any organization — especially large ones such as the CRA — should strive for. The CRA on its website said it “has launched targeted teams to identify and implement key initiatives that improve processing times across programs where Canadians face service delays. These initiatives will improve the overall client experience through streamlined processes and the use of advanced technologies like generative AI and robotic process automation.”
Unfortunately, that’s pretty vague and doesn’t give me a lot of comfort that we’re going to have an enlightening roadmap of what the systemic and root causes of the CRA’s shortcomings are and what the plan is to fix them. Using artificial intelligence might sound good and certainly has a future, but getting comfortable with generative AI models and tools takes time, especially when dealing with sensitive information such as taxpayer records.
What’s the common theme with the above concerns? The time to deal with these problems. Again, there is a long way to go to get the CRA up to an acceptable service standard. In other words, 100 days won’t cut it. It’s good politics, though.
Can you hear the slow wheeze of air escaping from my Pointer Sisters excitement balloon?
On Dec. 11, rather than seeing CRA triumphantly cheer its progress, I would hope Canadians are provided with a detailed report and plan. Included in that report should be:
- A detailed plan of what the “right-size” employee count should be in order to get to a goal of 100 per cent of calls answered.
- The prohibition of CRA employees working from home to improve efficiencies and reduce distractions.
- A comprehensive plan to better train CRA employees that includes an increase to the current astoundingly low amount — 30 minutes of ongoing training per year for each CRA employee — that was disclosed in the auditor general’s report.
- A plan that discloses exactly how generative AI — and other simple technology such as the broad use of scheduled call-backs — could help reduce call volumes, improve overall service standards and enhance security.
Meaningful improvement in CRA service standards requires more than political announcements and optimistic progress dashboards. It demands honesty about root causes, measurable service goals and leadership willing to confront systemic problems that have frustrated taxpayers and advisers for far too long.
Champagne may have tried to inject some Pointer Sisters excitement into this file back in September, but Canadians know better than to confuse choreography with real change.
We will soon know whether a serious plan for improved service standards is finally on the table, or whether Canadians will once again be left echoing a sentiment made famous by
: “We’re not gonna take it.”
Kim Moody, FCPA, FCA, TEP, is the founder of Moodys Tax/Moodys Private Client, a former chair of the Canadian Tax Foundation, former chair of the Society of Estate Practitioners (Canada) and has held many other leadership positions in the Canadian tax community. He can be reached at kgcm@kimgcmoody.com and his LinkedIn profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimgcmoody.
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