Overview
- Only 18% of calls were answered within 15 minutes in 2024–25, dropping to under 5% in June, based on the Auditor General’s tests and CRA data.
- Test calls waited nearly 33 minutes to reach an agent and took about 50 minutes to get a resolution, while CRA data showed average waits doubled year over year.
- Agents gave accurate answers just 17% of the time on general individual tax questions, with 56% accuracy on benefits queries and 54% on business taxes.
- Deflected calls jumped to 8.6 million from 1.4 million the prior year, complaints rose 145% since 2021–22, and the audit flagged minimal training time and telephony shortcomings under the IBM contract.
- The same release reported CAF recruiting fell short of plans (about 15,000 hires vs. 19,800 targeted) amid 200–300 day processing and security-check backlogs, with only 205 housing units available for 3,706 applicants.