Mr. Speaker, recently I have become aware of a disturbing trend. The Canada Revenue Agency has been targeting single parents, most often single mothers, typically because an ex-spouse has left a relationship with no forwarding address.
In response, these single moms are seeing their marital status changed back to married or living common law by the CRA. That, in turn, can result in their Canada child benefit being reduced, stopped, or even clawed back. Essentially these single mothers are being penalized with a presumption of guilt, while CRA says, “Prove us wrong”. It does not make that an easy process to fix.
I am asking single parents impacted by this to contact me. With the assistance of the CRA minister's office, we have already helped one single mom with three kids. I know there are many more who need our help.
I know all members of the House will join me in wanting to resolve this problem for single parents. They and their children deserve our respect and support in fixing this.