Madam Speaker, I am happy to respond to the question by the member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith regarding the Canada emergency response benefit.
The Government of Canada has worked quickly and diligently over the past few months to administer the programs related to COVID-19 in order to quickly deliver emergency payments, including the CERB, to Canadians who needed it the most in this most extraordinary time. In collaboration with Employment and Social Development Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency designed the CERB application process to be attestation-based. This is similar to the approach used in tax filing, where individuals attest to the information they provide when they file their taxes, and the CRA may verify this information at the time of filing or at a later date.
We know that the vast majority of Canadians are honest and forthright, especially when it comes to dealing with the CRA. In order to account for application errors made in good faith, the government has indicated that there will be no penalties or interest in cases where the CERB needs to be repaid.
We regret that communications regarding the eligibility criteria may have been unclear in the first days after the CERB was launched. The CRA was eager, and it was important, to disburse funds quickly to those in need under the exceptional circumstances of a global pandemic. However, we recognize that there was some confusion in the very early weeks of the program that may have led some individuals to mistakenly apply for the CERB. In fact, the CRA has adopted an educational approach regarding cases where the agency lacks sufficient information to determine if an applicant was eligible for the CERB. The CRA has sent letters to certain recipients in order to confirm that their income met the eligibility threshold of employment and/or net self-employment income of at least $5,000 in 2019 or in the 12 months prior to the date of their application. The letter strongly encourages those individuals who have not filed their 2019 tax returns to do so as soon as possible, as this is the simplest way to confirm their eligibility.
I would like to reconfirm, as stated by our Prime Minister in late December, that we recognize that for some individuals repaying the CERB could represent significant financial hardship. As also stated by the Prime Minister in December, we will work with the impacted individuals on a case-by-case basis. The government has developed an approach for how we will address the situation for impacted individuals, and we will be in a position to announce the details of this approach in the coming days.