Ottawa, October 21, 2025—A report from Auditor General Karen Hogan tabled today in the House of Commons concludes that the Canada Revenue Agency’s contact centres do not provide callers with timely and accurate information about individual taxes, benefits, and business taxes.
The agency’s service standard is to answer 65% of calls within 15 minutes or less. Callers choosing to speak with an agent waited on average 31 minutes in 2024–25, and just 18% got through to an agent within 15 minutes. In June 2025, only 5% of the calls met the standard. Callers did not receive real-time updates on their queue position, which limited their ability to decide whether to wait, use self-service options or disconnect.
Auditors from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada placed calls to CRA’s contact centres during a 4‑month period this year and asked general or non-account specific questions. They found that agent responses to business tax or benefits questions were accurate just over 54% of the time while responses to individual tax questions were accurate only 17% of the time. In contrast, the accuracy of responses to account specific questions was much higher. The audit also found that in assessing contact centre agents’ performance, the CRA placed greater importance on how closely they adhered to their schedule for their shift and breaks than on the accuracy and completeness of information they provided to callers.
In 2015, Shared Services Canada signed the contract for the contact centres’ telephony service. The Canada Revenue Agency is one of 3 government organisations to use this service. While the value of the contract was a minimum of $50 million over 10 years, the audit found that, including amendments, it had reached a total value of $190 million for the 3 entities using the system during that period.
“The Canada Revenue Agency has a duty to help individuals and businesses meet their tax obligations and access benefits,” Ms. Hogan said. “I am concerned that in spite of a new telephony system and other improvements, Canadians are still waiting too long to get answers to their tax questions.”
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The 2025 Report of the Auditor General of Canada, Canada Revenue Agency Contact Centres, is available on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada website.
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