OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing Prime Minister Mark Carney for announcing that the government is expanding automatic tax filing within hours of the government’s consultation ending.
Trusting the Canadian Government to do your tax return is like trusting your dog to protect your burger.
“There’s no way government bureaucrats pulled an all-nighter reading through thousands of submissions and survey responses before sending Carney out to make an announcement on automatic tax filing the next morning,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Asking Canadians for their opinion and then ignoring them isn’t a good look for Carney — it makes it look like the government is holding sham consultations.”
The Government of Canada announced consultations on automatic tax filing so Canadians could give the government “broad input through an online questionnaire.”
The consultation ended on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
Hours later, Carney announced that the government would expand automatic tax filing.
The CRA is already one of the largest arms of the federal government, with 52,499 bureaucrats — an increase of 13,015 employees since 2016 (33%). For comparison, America’s Internal Revenue Service employs 90,516 bureaucrats. The CRA has one bureaucrat for every 800 Canadians, while the IRS has one for every 3,800 Americans.
“The CRA can barely answer the phone, so Carney shouldn’t be giving those bureaucrats more busy work to do,” Terrazzano added. “The CRA is a bloated mess, and Carney should be cutting the cost of bureaucracy, not scheming up ways to give the bureaucracy more power over taxpayers.”
According to a 2017 Auditor General report, the CRA only answered 36% of the 53.5 million calls it received between March 2016 and March 2017. When Canadians were able to get through, call centre agents gave inaccurate information about 30% of the tim.
“The CRA acting as both tax collector and tax filer is a serious conflict of interest,” Terrazzano said. “Trusting the taxman to do your tax return is like trusting your dog to protect your burger.”
Terrazzano concluded, “Carney should stop the CRA power grab and instead cut taxes and simplify the tax code.” Protecting the right to self-file means protecting transparency, accountability, and financial independence.
– Author: Franco Terrazzano, Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Why Canadians Should Stay Vigilant
As the CTF points out, expanding automatic tax filing shifts more control into the government’s hands — and that’s a slippery slope for taxpayers. Canadians deserve the right to file, review, and understand their own returns, not have them quietly decided for them.
When citizens hand over that responsibility, they also hand over the ability to claim valuable credits, deductions, and benefits that directly impact how much they owe — or how much they keep.
This is why Canadians should continue to petition for their right to self-file. Empowering individuals to manage their own tax information promotes transparency, accountability, and financial literacy — key principles of The Urban Entrepreneur philosophy.
Financial empowerment starts with awareness. Let’s make sure that power stays where it belongs — with the people.
– Mark Abankwa
