QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Recovery of Fraudulent COVID-19 Support Payments
April 18, 2024
Senator Gold, in February 2023, I asked you questions about how many government employees, including at the Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA, had inappropriately received CERB payments. I received the so-called answer yesterday, 14 months after my original question. It stated:
As of December 20, 2023, the CRA can report that 185 individuals are no longer with the CRA as a result of this internal review. . . .
Of course, we already knew that, since a media article — published on the date referenced in the answer — stated that fact four months ago. When pressed by the media, the government disclosed the updated number of CRA personnel fired as being 232 in an article published last month, yet the answer I got yesterday was still 185.
Senator Gold, this is totally unacceptable. This information was released publicly months ago, so why is your government withholding the truth from the opposition and from Canadians?
Thank you for your question.
I’m not in a position to answer how the media received that information. I’m not challenging the figures you quoted, nor am I defending the tardiness with which you received your answer. Again, it is unacceptable that answers have taken so long. Although considerable progress is being made, as I think we all will acknowledge, with the number of answers that have been tabled, the situation is far from adequate. The Senate still remains deprived of timely answers, and I continue to undertake to remedy that by using all of the means at my disposal.
Senator Gold, it took your incompetent Trudeau government months to produce a simple answer, and they are now actively manipulating the release of information to avoid accountability. This should concern all senators, especially given your draconian motion to rewrite the Senate Rules, including those governing Delayed Answers.
Senate Gold, when will your government stop hiding the truth from all Canadians?
Senator Batters, I can understand your opposition to the motion for which I gave notice, but to describe the provisions in that motion as “draconian” is really a stretch, even for you, when this government is supporting a process to bring us in line, for the first time in the Senate’s history, with practices in Canada.
