The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) “could have done some sort of screening” before paying out claims under the costliest pandemic relief program, according to Auditor General Karen Hogan..The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy cost taxpayers $100.6 billion, including payments to companies in tax default..Testifying at the Senate national finance committee, Hogan called the program an example of CRA failure to complete even cursory background checks using information it already had..“An example we saw was in the Emergency Wage Subsidy program,” she said..“The Canada Revenue Agency had information where they could have vetted the eligibility of businesses,” said Hogan..“They could have done some sort of screening before giving out wage subsidies and they didn’t use all the information available to them. They didn’t share information across divisions which would have facilitated the heavy labour that is now needed during post payment verification.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, Parliament on April 11, 2020 passed Bill C-14 An Act Respecting Certain Measures In Response To COVID-19 to pay wage subsidies up to $10,164 for struggling small businesses. Cabinet later expanded the program to subsidize large publicly-traded corporations. The program originally estimated to cost $73 billion went 38% over budget with payments on five million separate claims..The Revenue Agency at the time claimed it was fully prepared to check claims. “I think we are doing a very good job,” Assistant Revenue Commissioner Frank Vermaeten told the House of Commons finance committee at the time..“We definitely have been working very hard.”.However, records show the Agency paid $145.9 million in subsidies to insolvent companies. They also subsidized hundreds of firms in default on their federal taxes..“Three-hundred fifty-two owed back taxes to the Canada Revenue Agency when they were sent the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy payments,” staff wrote in a May 16 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons..Other wage subsidies were paid to the Canadian offices of foreign corporations like local branches of the Bank of China, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines Company, the Habib Bank of Pakistan and Shinhan Bank of South Korea..The Commons finance committee also cited instances in which corporations claimed wage subsidies while paying out shareholder dividends..“A number of companies availed themselves of wage subsidy support but clearly didn’t need it,” New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, MB.) told the committee last December 14..The committee at the time voted six to five to ban any future wage subsidies to publicly-traded corporations that paid shareholder dividends..“The challenge is with someone gaming the system,” said Conservative MP Adam Chambers (Simcoe North, Ont.)
