OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 21, 2025 /CNW/ - Tax-Filer Empowerment Canada (TFEC) issued the following statement in response to the report by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) entitled Canada Revenue Agency Contact Centres.
"The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has been struggling to pick up the phone for years, and the situation is not getting any better. Today, the Auditor General is confirming that the status quo is not enough to meet the basic expectations of Canadian taxpayers.
A recent poll found that 71% of Canadians believe it is urgent for the CRA to get better at answering the phone when they call.1 Yet, the government plans to pursue some form of automatic tax filing, even though 77% of Canadians do not see it as a priority. This will drive up volume for the CRA when it struggles to pick-up the phone and provide accurate answers to basic tax questions.
The CRA has made efforts to reduce major call drivers, but it remains in critical catch-up mode, as it fails to keep pace with the private sector technological innovations. To this day, the CRA relies on manual processes and an increasing number of employees to answer an increasing number of daily calls. The OAG is clear: this strategy failed. The time has come to try a different approach, especially as the government is trying to reduce billions in operational spending.
The CRA and the tax preparation and software industry have built one of the most successful public-private partnerships of the past two decades, at no cost to Canadian taxpayers. A government which is serious about reducing the size of the public service while improving services to Canadians should challenge our industry to do more rather than relying solely on an Agency which has a hard time delivering on its core mandate.
The OAG report is another opportunity for the government to urgently convene industry stakeholders and experts to help fix services, rather than asking the CRA to do it alone in 100 days, which it simply cannot. Our members invest millions in cybersecurity, AI, and product improvement. We are ready to build solutions to help the government improve services."
About Tax-Filer Empowerment Canada (TFEC)
Tax-Filer Empowerment Canada (TFEC) is a national association that brings together about a dozen of the country's leading tax preparation and software firms. TFEC members are a central part of the system that enables 94% of tax returns to be submitted electronically every year. TFEC works with governments while keeping tax preparation independent from tax collection, and it promotes options that are accurate, affordable, and accessible.
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SOURCE Tax-Filer Empowerment Canada (TFEC)
Contact : Dan Pfeffer, [email protected]
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