The federal union of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees has launched an online campaign called “Canada Behind the Line” to protest the agency’s call center cuts.

About 3,300 call center employees have been laid off in the past year, said Marc Breyer, the national president of the CRA, which has led to longer wait times, dropped calls and a decline in the quality of service to the public. He stressed that the cuts have also put a lot of pressure on the employees themselves.

Breyer said the main goal of the campaign is to stop the cuts, keep existing jobs and bring back the laid-off employees, as he called the current staffing level “very low” and the services provided “severely compromised.”

The CRA’s headcount has increased during the pandemic, from less than 44,000 in 2019 to about 59,000 in 2024. But that number is now down to about 52,500 in 2025. The federal government is trying to restore staffing levels to pre-pandemic levels, but experts have warned that even then the CRA was facing staff shortages and the country’s population has grown.

The campaign, run in partnership with the Public Service Union of Canada, is asking people to contact their MPs, forward complaints to the tax watchdog and record videos of problems contacting the agency.

Breyer also said the second phase of the campaign will begin this fall and will include staff from other parts of the CRA, as more staff cuts, including permanent staff, are likely.

Under the federal government’s plan, agencies are required to cut about 15 per cent of their program costs by fiscal year 2028-29. Under the CRA’s 2025-26 annual plan, the number of full-time employees will fall from 50,804 to 47,732 in 2027-28, due to the end of interim budgets and government spending cuts.

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