Question Period Note: REGISTRATION AND AUTHENTICATION CALL CENTRE

Registration & Authentication (R&A) Call Centre

The Registration and Authentication Call Centre provides critical support to Canadians to ensure that the right person is accessing the appropriate information in a digital service delivery environment.

Measures continue to be put in place to minimize wait times, maximize call handling capacity, and ensure that Canadians have timely access to the information and support they need to receive service.

In Budget 2023, the Government proposed $30M, over two years starting in 2023-2024, to maintain service levels at the Registration and Authentication Call Centre, which provides support to Canadians having technical challenges with their My Service Canada Account.

The Registration & Authentication (R&A) Call Centre is the primary point of contact for client enquiries regarding My Service Canada Account (MSCA), National Student Loans Service Centre (NSLSC) account, Job Bank accounts, Canadian Government Annuities (CGA) and the Civil Service Insurance (CSI) programs.

In the post-COVID environment, call demand in relation to the R&A Call Centre is trending between 700,000 to 750,000 calls per year. In September 2021, the R&A Call Centre migrated to a call centre technology that allows a virtually 100% accessible environment where clients can queue to speak to an agent. While accessibility is now virtually 100%, during peak periods callers could experience wait times of more than an hour.

In August 2020, as a response to the GCkey Cyberattack, the Department increased the staffing of the R&A Call Centre to 130 agents to respond to the call demand (from an average call volume of approximately 11,000 to 142,000 calls weekly), to support clients during this critical time. This one time increase in agents temporarily allowed the R&A Call Centre to better align its capacity with the call demand. This resulted in an improved performance and increase in calls answered for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

While the R&A Centre continues to find innovative ways to enhance the client experience in a post-pandemic era, certain peak periods are expected to result in an influx of call volumes and longer wait times for Canadians.

In Budget 2023, the Government proposed $30M, over two years starting in 2023-2024, to maintain service levels at the Registration and Authentication Call Centre.

The Registration & Authentication (R&A) Call Centre serves as a specialized point of contact for clients who experience challenges accessing on-line services and supports the integrity of the online authentication process.

The R&A Call Centre has improved its accessibility to be near 100% for callers accessing the queue to speak to an agent.

In Budget 2023, the Government proposed $30M, over two years starting in 2023-2024, to maintain service levels at the R&A Call Centre.

As of March 24, 2023, the R&A Call Centre answered over 334,000 calls with the average wait time being 33 minutes.

In February 2023, the average wait time for the R&A Call Centre was 46 minutes compared to last year’s wait time of 81 minutes for the same period.