Union ‘cautiously optimistic’ about new outside hire Heather Evans as Carney’s pick to lead CRA 

New leadership should offer “a fresh new start” for the Canada Revenue Agency, says the Union of Taxation Employees, which is “cautiously optimistic” that Heather Evans—an outsider to the public service—can fulfill that wish as the incoming commissioner overseeing the CRA.

“I'm looking for a fresh new look from somebody coming from outside,” said Marc Brière, national president for the Union of Taxation Employees, a union representing more than 32,000 public servants working in the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). 

“That being said, I will see how she does being in charge of one of the largest, if not the largest, public administration in the federal government.” 

The CRA employs the largest number of public servants of any federal department or agency, with over 48,000 staff as of the feds' most recent numbers, released March 2026.

Carney (Nepean, Ont.) announced that Evans, currently the executive director and chief executive officer of the Canadian Tax Foundation, will become the CRA's next commissioner of revenue on July 13. In the same release, Carney also announced that Isabelle Mondou, Privy Council deputy clerk and cabinet associate secretary, will assume retiring cabinet deputy secretary Mala Khanna's governance role.

Evans takes the reins from Jean-François Fortin, who had been serving as acting commissioner since March 31 following Bob Hamilton's retirement. Hamilton had been serving in the top job since August 2016.

Evans has never been a public servant, nor worked within the CRA previously, and the bulk of her professional experience comes from her work at the accounting firm Deloitte Canada, where, most recently, she held the post of national managing partner of tax from 2012 to 2016. 

Previously, she also held the role of director of operations for their Toronto tax division and the post of national leader for private client services, going back to 2008. Evans has also previously practiced at two Toronto law firms and held roles at the C.D. Howe Institute and McCain Foods Group Inc.

She has been with the Canadian Tax Foundation—a non-profit founded by the Canadian Bar Association and the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada—since 2016. In a statement, foundation chair Michael R. Smith said her leadership "has been instrumental in strengthening" its role and impact. He highlighted her work strengthening the organization's governance and financial management, expanding services to a growing membership of more than 14,000, and "skillfully" managing the foundation through COVID-19.

"Her appointment is a testament to her exemplary professionalism and leadership from which now all Canadians will benefit," he said.

Evans's appointment comes as the CRA continues to face long-standing criticisms for its functionality. 

In the June 2026 annual report, Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson François Boileau reported the agency received the highest number of complaints since the pandemic, mostly around processing delays, inaccurate information, call wait times, and its complaint service. 

Boileau’s office received 3,558 complaints in 2025-26, the report says, a 27 per cent increase from the year before. 

Auditor General Karen Hogan also highlighted the systemic failures of the CRA’s call centres in her report last year, prompting Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne (Saint-Maurice—Champlain, Que.) to then order the agency to improve its services within 100 days.  

In September 2025, the CRA launched its 100-day plan, aimed at reducing call centre wait times as it continued to grapple with staffing cuts affecting the public service. 

According to the feds’ most recent headcount data, the CRA shed 3,725 jobs last year—a decrease of seven per cent, and is now down to 48,774 employees. 

But since the 100-day plan, Brière said there have been “improvements” and new employees have been hired to fill call centres. He said he’s “looking forward” to sitting down with Evans once she takes on her role to speak about the issues facing the agency. 

In December, the CRA sought to rehire about 1,700 call centre workers to handle the influx of calls as tax season approached. 

“They need to stabilize even more the CRA,” Brière emphasised, adding he’s “cautiously optimistic” about Evans and her ability to do so. 

Brière pointed to the need to “secure” those extra staff that were hired to fill call centres, as they are currently only on temporary contracts, which Brière called “worrisome.”

“Their contracts are ending for most of them in September,” he said. “So, I will certainly ask the new commissioner to not repeat the same mistakes of the past and to let people go, and try to call them back four months later, when half of them don't come back.”

“We lose expertise. We lose investment and training.”

Evans faces 'a big, big job,' says Senator Downe

Canadian Senators Group Senator Percy Downe (Charlottetown, P.E.I.) called Evan’s qualifications “outstanding,” adding that her being an outsider is a positive for the CRA, as it has grappled with issues for years.  

“The agency needs to be cleaned up, and I think the only way to do that is with an outsider now,” he said in an interview with The Hill Times.   

“She will hopefully make the structural reforms needed and provide the leadership needed to clean up that agency, which has had a host of problems.”

Downe said that Evans, new to the agency, will be “best positioned” to tackle the issues that are undermining Canadians' confidence in the agency, as opposed to someone already involved. 

“The CRA, unfortunately, has a history of putting out information that is wrong,” Downe noted. 

He said the agency has a history of "misleading" Canadians. 

Indeed, in 2017, an auditor general report on the CRA’s call centres found that the agency was only achieving its reported 90 per cent success rate for connecting calls because it was blocking or defecting calls, and removing them from the calculation. When blocked calls were considered, the success rate was only 36 per cent. 

More recently, in 2024-25, the CRA’s service standard was to respond to 65 per cent of its calls within 15 minutes. But an auditor general report from the same year found that, in fact, only 18 per cent of callers reached an agent.

“This new person has a big, big job, and I’m sure I join all Canadians in wishing her well.” 

But Brière said there are “pros and cons” to Evans being an outsider to the public service. Though he noted that Evans’ perspective will be “helpful” to conduct a “thorough analysis” of the CRA, it’s a big job for someone without insider knowledge. 

“If it’s her first major job in the public service—and it is a job with a lot of responsibilities, … we deal with just everyone in Canada at least every year—I think it would be good for her to be well surrounded by people who know the organization, too,” he said. 

Fortin is set to stay on as deputy commissioner, Brière said, calling this a "good" move as he can assist Evans on how the CRA functions and the challenges it's facing.  

But Brière said he doesn’t yet know Evan’s “vision” for the agency, which he’s “looking forward” to finding out about. 

Downe also speculated that Carney’s selection of Evans for the post means that prime minister has “recognized” there is an issue in the CRA. 

“It appears that Carney’s view is that he should hire the best person for the job, and he may very well have done that here,” he said.

ewand@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times