Contracts ending for 2,000 CRA workers

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has indicated it won't be extending contracts for 2,000 call centre workers across the country.

In an email, CRA spokesperson Sylvie Branch confirmed that 800 workers in Canada's western region, 600 workers in Southern Ontario, 500 workers in the Atlantic and 100 workers in Quebec would not see their contracts extended past their end of term of May 10, 2024.

However, 1,500 employees will get extensions. They include 300 employees in the West, 300 in Southern Ontario, 400 in the Atlantic and 500 in Quebec.

“At the Canada Revenue Agency we are continuously re-evaluating our contact centres to ensure we find the right balance between providing Canadians the quality of service they expect, and fiscal responsibility of taxpayer dollars,” Branch said in a statement.

She said the CRA brings on extra temporary help during tax-filling season, with many of those employees hired on a term basis. Noting that the agency aims to return to its normal staff size at the end of the season, she said that the CRA has also hired “a significant number”

(THE UNION) VIGOROUSLY DENOUNCES THIS SHAMEFUL DECISION.

of contact centre agents over the past few years to help with delivering benefits, like those related to the pandemic and the one-time topup to the Canada Housing benefit.

Aaron Martin, another spokesperson with the CRA, said the agency values its relationship with the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE), which represents over 35,000 CRA employees, noting that staffing “is not a part of the collective agreement.”

“The CRA elected to share this information with the UTE ahead of time as an act of good faith,” Martin said.

The union's national president, Marc Brière, however, maintains that the news was not shared with the UTE before this month, despite asking for information on impacts to staff during recent discussions over the past few weeks on changes to work schedules at the CRA's contact centres.

“We vigorously denounce this shameful decision by the Canada Revenue Agency,” Brière said. “In fact, we are certain that by reducing the number of employees responding to individual taxpayer inquiries and business inquiries, it will ... adversely impact taxpayer service.”