Question Period Note: EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE CALL CENTRES STANDARDS

How is Service Canada leveraging investments to improve access and reduce wait times in its Employment Insurance call centres?

Service Canada Call Centres, including the Employment Insurance Call Centre, are a critical part of the Government’s service to Canadians.

The Department is taking action to reduce wait times and ensure Canadians have timely access to the information and support they require. Even with these improvements, Canadians may still experience longer wait times to reach an EI Call Centre agent during peak periods. Individuals can use one of Service Canada’s online or telephone self-service options to obtain general program information or consult their account, allowing them to resolve enquiries without waiting to speak to a representative.

Service Canada will soon offer virtual hold, where clients waiting to speak to an agent can be called back when they are the next in line. This feature is expected to launch for EI by Fall 2024. Service Canada offers a teletypewriter (TTY) service for speech and hearing-impaired clients to access the EI program.

Teletypewriter clients can leave a detailed message and will be called back by teletypewriter within one business day.

Service Canada is implementing a new solution that would modernize the teletypewriter service by allowing calls to be answered directly by an agent rather than leaving a message. If Pressed (Office of the Auditor General (OAG) Report – October 19, 2023/Benefits Delivery Modernization (BDM)

BDM is the largest IT-enabled transformation initiative ever undertaken by the Government of Canada. Through a staged and cautious approach, including keeping the existing systems running in parallel during the transformation process, and progressive transfer of client segments into the new systems, the Programme will modernize how the federal government serves all Canadians, by replacing old systems and technology with new upgraded systems fit for the digital age.

ESDC/Service Canada will work with the Treasury Board Secretariat to develop and share approaches to support other departments, including reviewing practices from similar large-scale initiatives.

ESDC will maintain a risk log at the Programme and project level to manage and mitigate risks and unknowns.

On March 9, 2020, the EI Call Centre migrated to a new telephone platform, the Hosted Contact Centre Solution (HCCS), which allows virtually all callers to have the ability to wait in queue to speak to an agent.

On November 3, 2022, the Fall Economic Statement announced $483 million to reduce Employment Insurance (EI) Call Centre wait times.

The EI Call Centre has re-aligned capacity given call demand is forecasted to decrease as a result of a reduced claim intake forecast following the COVID19 pandemic. The Department continuously works to align call handling capacity to the call volume. As such, for 2024-25, the EI Call Centre will align capacity to approximately 2,375 officers.

In 2024-25, as of the week ending May 31, 2024, the EI Call Centre answered 964.7 thousand calls with an average annual wait time of 4.2 minutes, compared to an average of 1.8 minutes for the same period in 2023-24 and 24.8 minutes in 2022-23. The EI Call Centre’s service level target is answering 80% of calls within 10 minutes. As of the week ending
May 31, 2024, the service level since the beginning of the month stood at 91.62% and the
year-to-date result at 87.39%.

While the EI Call 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.

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