Taxpayers told their objections should be resolved within 120 days may be waiting far longer, thanks to a Canada Revenue Agency definition of time that excludes so-called “non-workable” days — a practice revealed during a federal labour board hearing.Blacklock's Reporter says testimony before the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board detailed how the Canada Revenue Agency measures performance targets for appeals officers handling taxpayer objections.According to the board’s written decision, CRA managers imposed expectations on how many hours staff should spend on a file and how long it should take to close, depending on complexity. Regular and small or medium-sized enterprise objections were to be resolved within an average of 120 “workable days” from assignment to decision. Medium-complexity files were allotted 170 workable days.But those days are not counted as calendar days or standard business days. Instead, only “workable days” are included. Files are deemed “non-workable” when officers are waiting for direction from another division, meaning the clock effectively stops. .One supervisor acknowledged during testimony that in some instances, the process can stretch on for years.Appeals officers were also assessed against “standard disposal hours” per file, benchmarks adjusted annually. The internal standards surfaced during the case of a CRA general accountant who was demoted after supervisors found he was spending an average of 198 hours per file, far exceeding the expected 25 to 35 hours at his classification level.Board testimony indicated managers complained the employee “saw scams everywhere and thought all taxpayers were crooks,” contributing to prolonged file times.The revelations come amid broader scrutiny of the agency’s handling of tax objections. A 2024 Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the House of Commons showed that of 120,581 notices of objection filed that year, only 11,455 had been processed by Labour Day. Of those resolved, 8,170 — more than 70% — were decided in favour of the taxpayer.A previous audit by the late Michael Ferguson, then serving as auditor general, found similar trends. .His 2016 report on tax objections concluded that 65% of disputes were resolved in favour of taxpayers challenging CRA assessments. At the time, the backlog of objections represented $18 billion in disputed claims.Ferguson told MPs the agency needed to be structured around serving citizens rather than internal processes.The latest labour board evidence suggests that while official targets cite 120 days, the definition of what counts as a “day” can significantly extend how long Canadians wait for their tax disputes to be resolved.
