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The 2026 tax season has unusually high stakes for the Canada Revenue Agency after a surge in public complaints and a scathing AG report
Published Mar 03, 2026 • Last updated 11 hours ago • 5 minute read
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Wayne Long, secretary of state responsible for the Canada Revenue Agency and financial institutions. Photo by Adam Huras/Brunswick NewsArticle content
Wayne Long says it’s his “Super Bowl.”
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After a surge in public complaints last summer and a scathing auditor general’s report, the Canada Revenue Agency now faces an unusually high-stakes tax season – officially underway.
Long, the Saint John-Kennebecasis MP, sworn in last May to the job of secretary of state for the CRA and financial institution, maintains he’s “determined to lean in, change the culture, and change the way of doing business” amid frustration with the agency.
Those efforts will now be tested.
Tax filers are now able to submit their returns with the deadline to file and pay taxes owed being April 30.
That’s June 15 for Canadian taxpayers and their spouses with self-employment income.
It comes with the CRA under the microscope.
Only 35 per cent of callers could get through to CRA call centre staff in the summer months.
Then in October, Auditor General Karen Hogan released a report that found wait times were excessive and that call centre agents were often giving out inaccurate information.
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It led to Long and the Carney government launching a 100-day improvement plan that reached its completion in December.
To return to a 70 per cent response rate, the agency hired back 1,250 call centre agents and was aiming to hire another 1,700 before tax season ramps up – a time when the agency can receive 300,000 calls a day.
“We’re coming up to about 1,500 hires,” Long said in an interview Tuesday, adding some were made in Saint John at its CRA centre. “It’s been a little slower than expected to onboard a few people, because there’s a lot of new people applying.”
The Canada Revenue Agency looks to rehire past workers, although that’s sometimes difficult if they move on to other jobs.
“And when you get new people, obviously you’re dealing with very sensitive information, so they need to have security clearance, they need to be trained,” Long said.
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There have been other changes.
There were 350,000 people annually that would need to call into CRA to simply unlock their accounts, in need of a new password.
That has now been automated.
There’s now the ability to book a call for a set time from CRA, where they call you, instead of waiting on hold for hours.
Taxpayers will also be able to manage their balance or amount owing and set up a payment plan without speaking with a collections agent.
The CRA then worked to reduce the number of calls it receives by expanding digital self-service options, like increasing the types of questions its AI chatbot could answer.
Entering tax season, Long said the standard reached 93 per cent.
“The internal goal we set is 77 per cent,” Long said, of a target to answer caller inquiries within a 30-minute wait time during tax time. “Is that going to drop down some through tax season? Yes, of course. There’s millions of tax returns being done literally within days. But we’re not going to be down to the 30 or 35 per cent that we were this past summer.
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“We’re ready, we’re prepared. My question to the senior team here last week was ‘Is the dam holding?’ And they said ‘yes.’”
He added: “We know our call volumes are going to be going through the roof over the next several weeks, so what can we do about it? For me, it’s like the Super Bowl.”
The Saint John MP said he saw the auditor general’s report “as a wake-up call for us to basically say ‘there’s obviously some issues that we need to deal with.’”
It now has the agency working on a three-year plan.
But that’s as Prime Minister Mark Carney has called on all government agencies, including the CRA, to reduce costs by 15 per cent over the next three years.
Long suggests the CRA workforce could be exempt from that.
“One of the things I’ve done is presented a case that let’s not cut our nose off to spite our face,” Long said. “CRA drives our government’s revenue. CRA collects taxes, so we’re reinvesting. The cuts that other departments are facing aren’t going to happen at the CRA, we’re going to reinvest.”
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He added: “I would argue the CRA is certainly a different animal. We want to make sure we’re equipped now. I’m not saying we should add more people, nor am I saying we should be leaner, but I think there’s a sweet spot there.”
Canada Revenue Agency has a workforce that fluctuates between 52,000 and 55,000 people.
That’s roughly the size of the entire New Brunswick civil service.
The CRA revealed last month new federal tax brackets adjusted for inflation for the current year.
The brackets, indexed to inflation which resulted in a two per cent increase, are used to determine how much tax you pay, as well as benefits like the HST tax credit, the Canada child benefit, and child disability benefits.
For 2026:
Income under $58,523 will be taxed at 14 per centIncome from $58,523 to $117,045 will be taxed at 20.5 per centIncome from $117,045 to $181,440 will be taxed at 26 per centIncome from $181,440 to $258,482 will be taxed at 29 per centIncome of $258,482 and over will be taxed at 33 per cent.
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The government has raised the basic personal amount, which is the amount of income you can earn before paying federal taxes at the lowest federal tax rate of 14 per cent.
For 2026, the amount is $16,452.
The 13 provinces and territories then have their own tax brackets indexed to inflation.
The Canada Child Benefit also increased by two per cent. The base amount for children under six is $8,157 annually, up from $7,997 in 2025 and $7,797 in 2024.
The maximum Canada Pension Plan contributions for employers and employees has been set at $4,230.45 for the fiscal year ahead.
The maximum amount of your income used to calculate CPP will be $74,600, an increase from $71,300.
The limit for old age security repayment threshold is set for $95,353 for 2026.
If your net income is more than the amount, your OAS will be reduced.
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