The federal government has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars to improve customer service at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) — but people who regularly deal with the country's tax collector say it hasn't had much of an effect, with telephone wait times sometimes clocking in at more than two hours.
The union that represents CRA employees said the federal government's decision to lay off approximately 1,800 employees in May and June has only made the situation at the agency's call centres worse.
There's been a spike in the number of irate callers lashing out at agents after experiencing long periods on hold, the union told CBC News.
As part of an effort to improve its service, the CRA has a feature on its website that tells taxpayers how long they can expect to wait to get through to an agent.
But a CBC News analysis of actual wait times found that people usually end up waiting much longer than the website's estimate. A relatively simple task — like changing a name or adjusting a person's marital status — can take up a significant part of a taxpayer's day.
The CRA website recently suggested the wait time for a lunch-hour call to the agency to discuss a personal tax matter would be approximately eight minutes.
But when CBC News
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