Thank you. Certainly those stories are very difficult to hear.
I want to reference for a moment the report that just came out called “A Just Recovery for Hamilton”. It's a 2023 report that was released in my city just this week by a coalition of 20 social service agencies, and it referenced the good that CERB did.
You may or may not know, but in Hamilton, we had a pilot for basic income. The way in which it lifted people out of poverty.... In Hamilton, for instance, the CERB and CRB program impacted 20% of Hamilton residents, allowing them to buy essential goods for their families, yet now we have this scenario in which the CRA seems intent on pursuing them.
However, when I reference headlines, they say it wouldn't be worth the effort to review all of the ineligible pandemic payments that relate to wage subsidies. That's billions of dollars that went to big corporations that then laid people off and in many cases paid out significant shareholder bonuses, including to ridiculously wealthy CEOs.
The Auditor General's report examined the CRB and the CEWS. It estimated that $27.4 billion “should be investigated further”, and of that, $15.5 billion was paid out to the wage subsidy, meaning that it went to employers directly.
Can you talk a bit, from your perspective, about the opportunity cost of having the CRA—which is spending our money, good money after bad—doggedly pursuing the lowest-income people who are struggling to get by in record-high inflation, while simultaneously allowing the wealthiest corporations in this country to walk away without any type of liability?