Tax agency puts Canada on hold

Judging by the latest auditor-general’s report, the Canada Revenue Agency needs a new motto: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you for the cheque,” would be appropriate.

Contrary to any agency claims that the public is it’s No. 1 priority, Auditor-General Michael Ferguson uncovered a standard of customer service that can only be described as appallingly bad. Not only does the Canada Revenue Agency deliberately block calls for help from the public, when it does deign to respond its advice is often wrong.

The auditor’s report released this week found that only 36 per cent of the calls made to the tax agency were able to connect over the course of a year. The agency, not surprisingly, has boasted that 90 per cent of callers successfully connect when they reach out for help, either through a telephone self-service centre or by speaking to a call-centre agent. But the agency’s impressive claim doesn’t account for the fact that, on average, a taxpayer must call four times in a week simply to get through to the agency.

Nor does the 90-per-cent figure account for the agency’s infuriating habit of blocking more than half the calls that come its way — simply because it gets lots of calls. In total, more than 29 million calls were blocked in a single year. The reason for this shoddy treatment is almost as stunning as its magnitude.

Relying on dubious logic, the Canada Revenue Agency concluded callers would rather get a busy signal or automated message than wait awhile to speak to an actual human — and so it blocks the calls. But here’s the kicker: No one at the agency asked callers to find out if this was what they wanted. And it gets worse. The lucky callers who did manage to get through to a warm body at CRA received the wrong answer to their questions 30 per cent of the time. That’s more than four times the 6.5-percent error rate the agency publicly — and either falsely or simply incorrectly — reports. “Don’t bug us,” or “Here’s the wrong info,” is no way to run an agency.

Anyone who’s ever filled out a tax return knows how complicated and frustrating the experience can be — like trying to assemble a lawn mower using instructions written in a foreign language. Canadians need to be able to get fast, reliable help from the Canada Revenue Agency.

One suspects that if the agency were a private business that had to compete for customers, it would have gone bankrupt long ago. But it has a lock-hold on handling the personal income taxes and business taxes that keep the country running. At the end of the day, the people at CRA might think they needn’t care what Canadians think of them.

The federal government needs to remind the agency. If the CRA wants our taxes, it should have the decency to pick up the phone when we call.