Evidence of meeting #28 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Canada - Benefit Delivery Services Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
No, it is internal guidance developed by departmental officials to facilitate the administration of the program, and it is very much in line with the federal guidance we have to deliver our programs.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Would you have the authority, then, within the public service to provide a guidance document that said if somebody earned more than $1,000 on the CERB, they would be eligible to receive the CERB?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Canada - Benefit Delivery Services Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
The program parameters of the CERB are that someone who.... They need to attest again that they have not received more than $1,000.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Could you answer the question though?
Liberal
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Okay.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Sorry, my apologies.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Canada - Benefit Delivery Services Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
The parameters of the program are that people can earn up to $1,000, and they need to attest, once again, that they are not earning more than $1,000. Again, as part of our program integrity measures, we rely on people's attestations. We have to process the applications.
However, working together with the CRA, we do have and will continue to have, even after the CERB program is over, a number of different program integrity measures to be able to recoup any money that was paid to people who were, in fact, not eligible.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Again, people actually disclosed to you the fact that they got fired. I don't know how you're ever going to.... You paid them. I don't know how you're ever going to collect that money back.
With respect to this issue, if you have the guidance to say you're going to pay people who have been red-flagged for fraud, certainly you must have a guidance authority within the public service to pay people who are falling through all the cracks in these programs. Again, I think that would be self-evident.
Why would you pay people who don't deserve the money and not pay people who really do need it?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Canada - Benefit Delivery Services Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
The delivery of the program, the overall design of the program, is not the purview of the public service. It is driven by the decisions that the government has made related to the design of the program. However, for the administration, we are responsible.
Regarding your question about people who have indicated that they quit their jobs, again, we will be looking at those, because there will be circumstances in which somebody may have legitimately quit their job and would be entitled. However, we also are requiring them to complete an attestation. Therefore, if they do not meet the program criteria.... Like we do for all the programs we deliver, if people do not meet the program criteria, we do have the authority to recover those funds.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Mr. Chairman, I have one quick one that won't require a verbal reply.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
The question just came from one of my colleagues. It says that our Conservative members are receiving reports from our communities about confusion around import tariffs on PPE and the exact requirements they need to follow on bringing in this equipment. Can CRA officials please clarify the existence of import duties on PPE and could they provide the committee with a written answer on the exact process for importing PPE?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Who want to take that? We are substantially over on that round, but I think there's a lot of information to come out there. Can anybody take the question on the tariffs on PPE?
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Just a written reply would be fine.
Ted Gallivan Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Programs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to take that back and provide the written response on behalf of the agency.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you very much.
All right. We'll now go to Mr. McLeod, who will be followed by Mr. Ste-Marie and Mr. Julian for shorter rounds.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was hoping to get a question in to the minister, but it looks like we've lost that opportunity again.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
I did want to ask a couple of questions.
First of all, I wanted to know from anybody who is presenting today how we can get information as to the update that is happening for the different programs by region, It would be interesting for me, as an MP, to know what the uptake is for different programs for businesses that are applying for the north.
I know that everybody is working a hundred miles an hour and 24 hours a day, but is there anybody who can provide me with that information? I'm concerned that there may be pockets or areas that may not be utilizing the programs. I'm hearing that in the north a lot of businesses in our communities are not applying for the programs. What I'm hearing is that because there are no banks in our communities, a lot of times they can't go through any kind of financial institution, so there's a small uptake. Can anybody speak to that?
Frank Vermaeten Assistant Commissioner, Assessment, Benefit and Service Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Certainly, there is information that is being made available in a transparent way on a number of these programs in terms of the distribution by province, so we at the CRA would have information on the programs that we're administering. I can probably say the same for each of the departments that is administering the program. I don't know whether there is one comprehensive report on all of these programs, but certainly we would be willing to provide information on it, on a province and territory basis, if the committee would like that.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Would that same kind of information be available for the indigenous business support? A lot of our indigenous companies are large development corporations, and there start to be challenges when you're dealing with companies that have over 20 people. Up to now, it has been difficult for them to prove that there has been a reduction in revenue, because they have so many branches and subsidiaries. A lot of them were not able to access some of this program funding that was designated for indigenous businesses, but I don't know if that's information that I could get my hands on in a quick fashion.