As the deadline for filing taxes approaches, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) says it will be transparent about any impact to its services if workers go on strike — potentially as soon as this week.
At the same time, the agency says it is “confident” a compromise can be reached.
“The CRA is committed to being transparent with Canadians about impacts to services, should they happen,” the agency said in a statement released Friday.
The deadline for filing income tax and benefit returns for 2022 is April 30, but since that’s a Sunday CRA says Canadians can still file on May 1.
An ongoing labour dispute over contracts and wages resulted in CRA workers voting Friday in favour of strike action.
The CRA said it will resume negotiations later this month with the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Union of Taxation Employees to try to reach a new collective agreement that is both fair to workers and reasonable for taxpayers.
A final round of negotiations is set to take place April 17-20, with CRA workers in a legal strike position starting April 14.
“We are confident that the parties will find many areas of potential compromise and trade-off, through honest discussions and concessions by both sides, during the upcoming negotiations,” the CRA said.
According to the unions, more than 35,000 CRA workers have been without a contract for more than a year and the government has yet to respond to their wage proposals.
“Our members are falling further behind as inflation soars and wages are stuck in neutral,” Marc Brière, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees, a component of PSAC, said in a statement Friday.
“We’ve negotiated in good faith, but our members have had enough. Our bills are mounting and our families are feeling the pinch. And now, we’re going to show the government that workers won’t wait.”
Voting for the strike started Jan. 31 and ended Friday.
— with files from Global News’ Eric Stober.