The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has identified a staggering $10 billion in pandemic relief cheques paid to ineligible applicants, marking the highest figure disclosed to date. Blacklock's Reporter says despite ongoing recovery efforts, only a fraction of these funds has been reclaimed, with billions more expected to be lost through future audits.“As it relates to individual programs, the Agency has completed reviews and thus far had found $7.96 billion in payments had been ineligible as of December 31, 2023,” the CRA reported to the Senate national finance committee.The report further detailed, “Through initiatives like double dipping, recipient-driven adjustments, and adjustments between programs where a recipient was deemed ineligible for one program but eligible for another, an additional $1.73 billion has been identified as owing.” This brings the total to $9.69 billion in identified overpayments.“Of these amounts, $1.93 billion has been recovered,” the CRA stated, adding that ongoing audits “will undoubtedly result in ineligible amounts being added to the outstanding debt related to COVID-19 benefits.”To date, the CRA has conducted full audits on 544,000 Canadians who claimed benefits such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). “Our goal is to audit 857,000 people,” the agency noted.These figures do not include benefits paid to ineligible businesses, which total another $510 million.The Canada Emergency Response Benefit Act, passed on March 25, 2020, initially aimed to provide $2,000 a month to jobless tax filers facing eviction or foreclosure. The program, originally budgeted at $24 billion, ultimately cost $81.6 billion. At the time, MPs warned of widespread fraudulent claims.“There is no doubt that when creating a program as quickly as we did, there is going to be some abuse of that program,” Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North), parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader, told the Commons in 2021. “I suspect when I hear from my Conservative friends they will highlight some of those problems which we are very much aware of.”The latest figures come in response to questions from the Senate national finance committee during an April 30 hearing. Sen. Pierre Dalphond (Que.) expressed concerns about the slow recovery of funds.“There were indications efforts would be made to recover some of that money,” said Dalphond. “Where do things stand now? That was back in 2020 and it’s now 2024.”“The work is ongoing,” replied Assistant Revenue Commissioner Marc Lemieux. “This work will continue until March 2025. To date, we’ve conducted full audits on 544,000 people.”“We don’t just need to do audits,” added Lemieux. “There are also collections and their impact on people.”The CRA report highlighted additional challenges, noting the insolvencies of 39,391 individuals who had collected pandemic relief cheques, complicating the recovery of funds.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has identified a staggering $10 billion in pandemic relief cheques paid to ineligible applicants, marking the highest figure disclosed to date. Blacklock's Reporter says despite ongoing recovery efforts, only a fraction of these funds has been reclaimed, with billions more expected to be lost through future audits.“As it relates to individual programs, the Agency has completed reviews and thus far had found $7.96 billion in payments had been ineligible as of December 31, 2023,” the CRA reported to the Senate national finance committee.The report further detailed, “Through initiatives like double dipping, recipient-driven adjustments, and adjustments between programs where a recipient was deemed ineligible for one program but eligible for another, an additional $1.73 billion has been identified as owing.” This brings the total to $9.69 billion in identified overpayments.“Of these amounts, $1.93 billion has been recovered,” the CRA stated, adding that ongoing audits “will undoubtedly result in ineligible amounts being added to the outstanding debt related to COVID-19 benefits.”To date, the CRA has conducted full audits on 544,000 Canadians who claimed benefits such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). “Our goal is to audit 857,000 people,” the agency noted.These figures do not include benefits paid to ineligible businesses, which total another $510 million.The Canada Emergency Response Benefit Act, passed on March 25, 2020, initially aimed to provide $2,000 a month to jobless tax filers facing eviction or foreclosure. The program, originally budgeted at $24 billion, ultimately cost $81.6 billion. At the time, MPs warned of widespread fraudulent claims.“There is no doubt that when creating a program as quickly as we did, there is going to be some abuse of that program,” Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North), parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader, told the Commons in 2021. “I suspect when I hear from my Conservative friends they will highlight some of those problems which we are very much aware of.”The latest figures come in response to questions from the Senate national finance committee during an April 30 hearing. Sen. Pierre Dalphond (Que.) expressed concerns about the slow recovery of funds.“There were indications efforts would be made to recover some of that money,” said Dalphond. “Where do things stand now? That was back in 2020 and it’s now 2024.”“The work is ongoing,” replied Assistant Revenue Commissioner Marc Lemieux. “This work will continue until March 2025. To date, we’ve conducted full audits on 544,000 people.”“We don’t just need to do audits,” added Lemieux. “There are also collections and their impact on people.”The CRA report highlighted additional challenges, noting the insolvencies of 39,391 individuals who had collected pandemic relief cheques, complicating the recovery of funds.
