CRA plans major hiring push to boost call centre capacity ahead of tax season

The Canada Revenue Agency says it plans to bring on roughly 1,700 additional call centre staff in the coming months as it prepares for a surge in taxpayer inquiries during the upcoming filing season. Agency officials say the goal is to expand the workforce to about 4,500 agents, citing internal forecasts that anticipate heavy call volumes.

Melanie Serjak, an assistant commissioner with the CRA, told reporters that it is routine for the agency to scale up its operations for tax season, when daily call volumes can exceed 300,000. She said last year’s peak staffing level reached about 3,300 agents, and the CRA hopes to surpass that by more than 1,000 this year. At present, roughly 2,700 people are working in CRA call centres across the country.

The hiring push comes as several federal departments are simultaneously warning employees about potential job reductions. According to unions representing public servants, hundreds of workers at Natural Resources Canada, the Public Service Commission, Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, and the Department of Finance have recently received notices that their positions may be affected.

These notices are connected to Ottawa’s ongoing plan to reduce program and administrative spending by about $60 billion over five years. The federal government has said the review will involve restructuring operations, consolidating internal services, and adjusting staffing levels to bring the public service to what it calls a more sustainable size.