SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 172 - Mar/23/23

Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Mar/23/23 11:31:28 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague, as he is always working hard to fight for tax fairness and close loopholes that allow for extremely wealthy individuals to move their money out of the country. One thing I am hearing from constituents is that people who applied for CERB and who might not have properly read the application, which might have not been clear from the government, are now being told that their child tax benefit will be reduced or, even worse, are getting a bill from CRA saying they have to pay it. Instead of the government going after big companies that paid out dividends to shareholders and collected the wage subsidy, it is going after low-income Canadians. This is creating huge mental health stress for Canadians and huge financial stress for them and their families. These people are already struggling. Does my hon. colleague agree that there should be CERB repayment amnesty for all Canadians who are struggling right now?

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Context: House Hansard - 172 - Mar/23/23

Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie

Mar/23/23 11:32:35 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for raising that important issue. I think all of my colleagues in the House of Commons would agree. We are getting a lot of calls from families that have had their child benefit cut, probably because they received CERB payments that the Canada Revenue Agency wants to claw back. No arrangements seem to have been taken into account. This approach can really lead to suffering and poverty for these families. We sincerely hope that the government will look at this, that the Minister of National Revenue will be able to address this and find a solution. We hope so. We will see whether she will do anything about this. It is really troubling. I really liked the comparison the hon. member made. When it comes to regular folks, the government is quick to claw back money it is owed without even asking, but when it comes to multinationals, billionaires and fighting tax evasion, then it is much more complicated, sadly.

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Context: House Hansard - 172 - Mar/23/23

Mr. Tako Van Popta (Langley—Aldergrove, CPC)

Mar/23/23 11:51:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am very intrigued by the concept of CERB amnesty. I would like to hear some more details about my colleague's thoughts about that. Will there be means testing? I am assuming that applicants for this amnesty would have to be below a certain income or below a certain wealth level. Would there also be inquiries as to why applicants for amnesty applied for CERB when they clearly did no qualify for it? How about the people who decided not to apply for CERB because they knew they did not pass the test? Would they also qualify now for a CERB payment after the fact?

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Context: House Hansard - 172 - Mar/23/23

Ms. Leah Gazan

Mar/23/23 11:52:00 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we should be clear that this program was not clear to begin with. There were calls to apply for CERB and then we would deal with it after. That is important to point out. A lot of people benefited from support during the pandemic. We know that if we do CERB clawbacks for families that are currently living at lower incomes right now, it is going to result in people ending up on the streets. Income assistance programs are not enough for families to survive, and children are going to be punished for this. I am calling for this, as is the NDP. Instead of going after families living in poverty, instead of going after poor people all the time, poor bashing and criminalizing poor people, let us to go after rich CEOs who collected bonuses during the pandemic from programs that were paid by the government I get tired of that rhetoric in the House. It is not based on research. It is not based on fact. It is a violence that continues in the House against people living in poverty, and I do not accept it.

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Context: House Hansard - 172 - Mar/23/23

Mr. Jeremy Patzer

Mar/23/23 6:00:18 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-26

Mr. Speaker, we can look at some of the issues we are facing. The CRA has been subjected to relentless cyber-attacks over the last number of years. Even CERB fraud was committed by cyber-attackers. Somewhere between 1,200 and 1,800 individual accounts were exploited for fraud because the lack of cybersecurity was able to help them out. Eventually we got that under control, but it just shows how many attacks we have. Having a framework in place is good, and the government is trying to go in the right direction here, but there are things we need to do with this bill. Hopefully at committee we can help to establish some stronger pillars to make sure Canadians are protected.

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