QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Canada Revenue Agency
October 30, 2024
Senator Gold, yesterday, I asked you about hackers obtaining millions of dollars from the Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA, through privacy breaches. Today we learned of another scam, Senator Gold.
Last summer, a taxpayer falsely changed his T4 slips to claim he was owed $40 million. The CRA started paying him the money.
That’s right: It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
The CRA started paying him the money without verifying his new tax return. They only discovered the scam when a bank alerted the CRA that he was getting an unusual $10-million payment.
Is that also funny, Senator Simons?
If this guy had been less greedy he would have gotten away with it, and the CRA wouldn’t have found other similar scams.
Senator Gold, how can you defend the incompetence, the neglect, the lack of a competent government doing —
Senator Gold.
Thank you for your question. This also gives me an opportunity to correct something that I said yesterday with regard to this issue. When talking about the other breach, I misspoke.
H&R Block was the target of the hacking but not responsible for it. I want to go on record and apologize for my error.
With regard to your question, this story is an incredible one. I believe it was the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, or CIBC, that flagged the issue to the CRA — and good on them, as we would say. Tax fraud is an important responsibility. The CRA does its best, knowing that it’s a prime target for fraud attempts. Indeed, as I’ve mentioned, it is regularly upgrading its defences and looking out for fraud. With regard to any further comments, I really can’t make them —
Thank you, Senator Gold.
Where is the accountability? You’ve increased the number of employees at the CRA by two thirds since 2016, yet it doesn’t seem like any of them are rooting out fraud.
The minister responsible for the CRA is one of the four Trudeau cabinet ministers with one foot out of the door, so she’s certainly not minding the shop. I doubt if anyone is, Senator Gold.
Who’s taking care of Canadian taxpayers?
The CRA has an enormous responsibility and an enormous job to do. It certainly had an enormous responsibility during the years of the pandemic. Many of these issues, if my understanding of the reporting is correct, had their origins in that area, but, again, it’s taking steps to enhance its security and doing everything it can to protect itself — and, therefore, Canadians — against fraud.
