The CRA spent $18 million on Charlie, its new tax information chatbot

OTTAWA — The Canada Revenue Agency paid $18 million for a chatbot the auditor general says gave her team the wrong answer 66 per cent of the time.

In February 2020, then-National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier proudly announced a new tool she promised would help taxpayers better navigate the labyrinth of Canada’s sprawling tax code: Charlie the Chatbot .

The chatbot could help answer general tax filing questions but was still “learning about the CRA,” the agency warned .

Fast forward five years and Auditor General Karen Hogan suggested that the chatbot that was present on 13 CRA web pages still has a lot of learning to do.

“Charlie’s responses tended to be brief, offering limited context and minimal additional information,” reads Hogan’s scathing report on CRA’s call centr