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As I'm sure most members have seen, the government has mandated the CRA to come up with a plan within 100 days to deal with the problems of Canadians not being able to get through their call centres.  I wrote about this in one of my Financial Post pieces here The CRA needs to get better - now. Here are five ways to make it happen 

As I mention in the article, this 100 day plan risks being nothing more than political theatre but surprisingly the government has been blunt in its assessment of how bad the call centres are.  And I agree.  

In my view, it is unrealistic to expect much to happen in 100 days - with the 100th day being December 11, 2025.  But, at the least the following 5 things can be committed to:

• Implement callback queues and a scheduling system
• Set hard service standards
• Expand the dedicated telephone service for income tax professionals
• Implement an independent body for oversight - with teeth
• Train hires better

I just finished an interview with CBC radio on this topic.  The previous panel before me was pushing hard that the CRA needs to hire more people to solve the problems.  I disagreed and stated that the problem is much more complex than that and goes back decades but has been particularly worse in the last few years.  Look at the reasons why and try to solve that before throwing more people and money at the issue.  We've had a 47% increase in CRA headcount from 2015 to 2024 with no improvements in call centre management (and in fact getting worse).  The solution is not just more people. 

What do you think?

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Kim G C Moody FCPA, TEP
Founder, Moodys Tax / In the Mood Content Creator
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I agree there are no easy answers. We need better alternatives than "call in, stay on hold and hope".

Prescheduled calls seem like a good approach.

I'd like to see an expanded "Submit Request" system on the CRA Portals. We send in the issue. CRA triages it and finds an appropriate agent who can address the issue. Proceed from there - maybe the issue is easily resolved without further contact; maybe a call or a meeting gets scheduled. Let us send in the details so the right CRA agent can be identified, rather than trying to escalate a call one tier of agents at a time.

I'm not sold on solutions specifically targeting tax professionals. I agree with the DTS - that allows income tax professionals to contact rulings officers for technical questions on the basis that the professionals' questions are outside the scope that phone agents can address. Tax professionals should not have special access to resolve issues such as, say, an address change or a misapplied payment. What is different about our calls to justify different treatment? Any message that "high-paid professional advisors get to jump the queue ahead of ordinary Canadians" will not end well.

What I have not seen is any attempt to determine the root cause. What kind of issues or questions are overflowing the lines? Can better online services deal with some or all of these? Without knowing what causes the problems, we get ineffective "solutions". 

I see a lot of calls trying to move personal tax payments between years.  We can easily do this online for corporate payments - why can't that be extended to personal payments? If that is contributing to the overflow, prioritize that change.

The problem is not "there are too many calls".  That is the result of the root cause problems.

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Hugh Neilson
Kingston Ross Pasnak LLP
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-19-2025 12:41
From: Kim Moody
Subject: CRA Call Centres

As I'm sure most members have seen, the government has mandated the CRA to come up with a plan within 100 days to deal with the problems of Canadians not being able to get through their call centres.  I wrote about this in one of my Financial Post pieces here The CRA needs to get better - now. Here are five ways to make it happen 

As I mention in the article, this 100 day plan risks being nothing more than political theatre but surprisingly the government has been blunt in its assessment of how bad the call centres are.  And I agree.  

In my view, it is unrealistic to expect much to happen in 100 days - with the 100th day being December 11, 2025.  But, at the least the following 5 things can be committed to:

• Implement callback queues and a scheduling system
• Set hard service standards
• Expand the dedicated telephone service for income tax professionals
• Implement an independent body for oversight - with teeth
• Train hires better

I just finished an interview with CBC radio on this topic.  The previous panel before me was pushing hard that the CRA needs to hire more people to solve the problems.  I disagreed and stated that the problem is much more complex than that and goes back decades but has been particularly worse in the last few years.  Look at the reasons why and try to solve that before throwing more people and money at the issue.  We've had a 47% increase in CRA headcount from 2015 to 2024 with no improvements in call centre management (and in fact getting worse).  The solution is not just more people. 

What do you think?

------------------------------
Kim G C Moody FCPA, TEP
Founder, Moodys Tax / In the Mood Content Creator
------------------------------