My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

Senator Gold, while it may have been rolled out with the best of intentions, the CERB program was fraught with problems from the get-go. We’ve certainly heard all the stories of people receiving payments for which they didn’t qualify. Now, according to a report from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), we know that organized crime knowingly and actively defrauded the CERB program by filing multiple applications using stolen identities.

I think we can all appreciate how incredibly frustrating this must be for taxpayers, especially for Canadians who have to jump through hoops to qualify for various other programs from your government.

Senator Gold, what if anything is being done to recover these taxpayers’ dollars from criminal organizations? What is being done to ensure that criminals are punished for this defrauding of taxpayers’ funds?

Government leader, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FINTRAC, says that it does not know exactly how much CERB money went to organized crime. However, the Minister of National Revenue told the media that audits of CERB have been under way for some time.

Leader, according to the Canada Revenue Agency, how much CERB money did these audits show was fraudulently claimed by organized crime?