Photo: Adrian Wyld The Canadian Press Hundreds of Canada Revenue Agency employees seized the opportunity to line their pockets with the CERB during the pandemic.
A total of 330 tax officials were fired for illegally receiving pandemic benefits, according to the Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA) final tally released Wednesday, four years after the fact.
“While the vast majority of cases [under investigation] have been reviewed, there are a very small number of cases that will take longer, such as those involving employees on sick leave or extended unpaid leave,” CRA spokesperson Nina Ioussoupova added in a statement.
The federal agency was responsible for administering the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), a $500-a-week financial boost for workers forced to stay home by COVID-19 lockdowns. Instead, hundreds of its employees seized the opportunity to line their own pockets. At least 650 investigations have been opened by the CRA into its own staff. The federal tax authorities have determined the guilt of about a hundred additional civil servants since the last update of the balance sheet.
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The report released Wednesday is intended to be the final on the case. In addition to the 330 CRA employees fired for applying for and receiving the CERB, 40 other public servants have been given administrative measures, such as suspensions. Another 145 people under investigation had already left the Canada Revenue Agency or had been victims of identity theft.
Although the salaries and working conditions of federal public servants made most of them ineligible for emergency assistance, 135 CRA employees targeted by the investigation fell within the exception and were in fact eligible for the CERB. These are mainly temporary employees or students. “Furthermore, any CRA employee who improperly applied for and received the CERB is required to repay the amounts [of money] received if they have not already done so,” the press release states.
The CRA considers that the actions of the offending public servants “should in no way undermine the honesty and integrity of the tens of thousands of CRA employees who work in an exemplary manner every day to serve Canadians.”
The CERB was replaced by other pandemic relief programs, primarily the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), in September 2020, four years ago. Most of the pandemic support for workers ended in October 2021.
A few months later, Canada’s Auditor General concluded that $4.6 billion had been overpaid during the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of CERB or CRB. She strongly advised the government to look more closely at $27.4 billion in various benefits to detect further anomalies. Ottawa rejected that recommendation.