Chair, thank you very much.
I'm happy to speak in favour of the motion. I take Ms. Dzerowicz' point about the timeliness of paying out certain benefits. It's important to encourage Canadians to file on time, but also to provide some flexibility for folks who have questions they can't get answers to right now, or, in certain cases, might need permission.
I just heard a story about someone who has been locked out of their CRA filing account. They need to call the CRA in order to get access to their account. They can't do that while no one is picking up the phone. That's somebody who shouldn't be penalized, in my view, for having a late return because they're not able to do the things they need to do to file their return.
Where Canadians can file their return, I don't think there's anything contradictory about the government's saying, on the one hand, that, if you're able to file, do file on time. We encourage filing on time. There are benefits to filing on time, but in the event that you can't file on time, you're not going to be penalized.
I think it's also important to note that, while I take all of the resolutions of the committee very seriously, this isn't a binding resolution. It's not something the government is going to have to implement. I would encourage them to implement it. I would encourage them to be thoughtful about it and to think about ways they may already start preparing to try to accommodate late filing for payments of certain benefits on July 1.
This is something the department has some experience with. I wouldn't say that it went well, but during the pandemic, there were delayed filing dates. Hopefully there have been some lessons learned by the department about how to do this and how to mitigate some of the negative impacts, but the fact of the matter is, for Canadians who aren't able to file on time because they need access to someone on the CRA phone line, their benefit payments on July 1 are going to be delayed already.
Certainly, again, encourage those who can file on time to file on time, but for those who can't, I think there should be an understanding that they won't be penalized for circumstances beyond their control.
Finally, I would say that the best way to mitigate all of this is for the government to reach a fair deal at the table as quickly as possible. PSAC has been without a new contract now for about two years. None of the bargaining issues are new. They waited a bloody long time for the government to put an offer on the table—well past the expiration of their contract.
Let's not pretend that somehow we're in this bind for any reason other than the government's not presenting a reasonable offer in anywhere near a reasonable timeline. The best way to get around all of this is to have an expeditious end to negotiations by getting a deal.
When we've had a year of completely unprecedented inflation, to put numbers on the table that don't in any way reflect the period of inflation that we have suffered, when we know that public sector negotiations set the bar for wage negotiations across the entire economy, the PSAC isn't just out for themselves. They're out for workers across the country in private industries as well who are interested in making wage gains that recognize that they've been kicked in the teeth over the last year with the cost of groceries, rent and everything else.
If the public service settles and the government insists on giving them a wage deal that doesn't recognize inflation, they won't just be punishing the PSAC. They'll be punishing workers across the entire economy who are going to go to employers to ask for wage increases that recognize inflation and be told that not even federal civil servants got wage increases that recognize inflation, so why should you get it?
This is an important negotiation for the entire country, for workers across many different industries who are rightly looking to ensure that their paycheques keep up with increased costs. It's why this government, which says it cares about workers, should be concerned not just for civil service workers. It should be concerned to have an exemplary deal that shows employers in the public and private sectors how to fairly accommodate its workers who have been suffering greatly as a result of inflation. That's the best way to get this done, but, in the meantime, if certain Canadians who can't reach anybody at the CRA right now want to take a few extra days to file their taxes, I think that's the least we can do.
Thank you.