TORONTO — The federal government is acknowledging that thousands of Canadians are missing out on benefits they are entitled to because they are not filing their income taxes — in some cases losing out on “thousands and thousands of dollars.”Speaking Monday at a community health centre, Wayne Long, the secretary of state for the Canada Revenue Agency and financial institutions, said MPs across the country regularly hear from constituents who have gone years without filing tax returns and, as a result, never received federal supports such as the GST credit or the Canada Child Benefit.“All of us have stories about people coming in who hadn’t filed their taxes, who need help filing their taxes, who hadn’t received the GST credit or the Canada Child Benefit,” Long said. “Some of these people across the country and those who are in need sometimes are owed thousands and thousands of dollars.”.The comments came as the federal government announced a three-year renewal of funding for the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program, which supports free tax clinics run by community organizations for people with modest incomes and simple tax situations.Last year alone, more than 30,000 organizations and nearly 20,000 volunteers helped file over one million tax returns through the program, according to Long, putting billions of dollars in refunds, credits and benefits into the hands of low-income Canadians.But the remarks also underscored a deeper problem: access to key federal benefits is still largely tied to a system that assumes people can navigate tax filing on their own..While the government framed the funding renewal as an affordability measure, Long’s admission highlighted systemic gaps that leave vulnerable Canadians dependent on volunteers and community organizations to access money they are already owed.To address those gaps, Long pointed to the federal government’s Automatic Federal Benefits Program, announced last fall, which aims to automatically deliver benefits to up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians without requiring applications. The program covers benefits such as the GST/HST credit, the Canada Child Benefit and the Canada Disability Benefit.The government has argued that automation will make it easier and faster for people to receive support, but critics say the continued reliance on volunteer-run tax clinics raises questions about why essential income supports are still tied to tax compliance in the first place.Long also praised community organizations and volunteers who run the clinics, as well as employees at the Canada Revenue Agency, calling their work essential to ensuring Canadians receive the help they need.For now, the renewed funding ensures those clinics will continue operating for the next three tax seasons — even as Ottawa concedes that without them, thousands of Canadians would remain unaware of benefits already owed to them.
