The Liberal government is proposing legislation aimed at cracking down on fraudulent claims for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), but will not punish people who made “honest mistakes” in claiming the federal pandemic assistance, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday.
In a bill to be tabled in the House of Commons Wednesday, the government says Canadians won’t be eligible to claim the benefit if:
- They fail to go back to work when it is reasonable to do so, and their employer asks them to return.
- They fail to resume self-employment when it’s reasonable to do so.
- They decline a reasonable job offer when they are able to work.
The bill also lays out penalties for claimants whose applications include information that is “false or misleading,” and for those who “knowingly failed” to disclose sources of income or other relevant facts when they applied for the federal aid.
An offence could net a fine of up to $5,000, plus a penalty equal to double the amount of the income support claimed, or a fine plus a period of imprisonment up to six months, according to proposed legislation.
When the government announced the CERB and the separate wage subsidy program for businesses in late March, Trudeau warned Canadians about double-dipping in both programs and making fraudulent claims.
About eight million Canadians have received CERB, which offers people about $2,000 a month for up to 16 weeks.
Speaking at his daily pandemic briefing in Ottawa on Tuesday, Trudeau said “there may be a number of people who mistakenly took both the CERB and the wage subsidy.”
“Those people will simply have to pay back the one that they shouldn’t have been taking,” Trudeau told reporters.
“We’re not looking at punishing people who made honest mistakes, obviously. This is a time for us to pull together as a country.”
The minority Liberal government needs the support of the opposition parties to pass the legislation in Parliament.
The leader of the centre-left New Democratic Party (NDP), Jagmeet Singh, said the government crackdown against benefit fraud goes too far and proposed legislation is “going to impact, without a doubt, racialized people more than anyone else.”
“What I want to see is completely removing the penalty approach,” Singh said. “The criminal approach, putting people in jail, giving people massive fines is not the right approach. There are far better tools, particularly in a pandemic that we should be using.”
The NDP also wants to see the benefit program extended for a longer period.
The Liberals would need the support of either the NDP or the Conservatives to pass the legislation.
Outgoing Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, who has repeatedly voiced concerns about fraudulent claims, did not say Tuesday whether he plans to support the legislation.
“Discussions are ongoing, but I fully expect us to be able to work well with the opposition to deliver this important support to Canadians,” Trudeau said.
With files from Kathleen Harris of CBC News
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