More than 50,000 businesses that received emergency wage subsidy payments worth $9.87 billion from the federal government during the pandemic may not have been eligible for the support, Canada’s auditor general said Tuesday, raising questions about the efficiency of the program and the future potential of similar interventions.
The report published by auditor general Karen Hogan on Tuesday was her first look into the $210 billion in payments made via the government’s six COVID-19 aid programs during the pandemic. She said that a minimum of $27.4 billion worth of payments made during the pandemic needed to be investigated.
“I am concerned about the lack of rigour on post-payment verifications and collection activities,” Hogan said in a statement.
“The Canada Revenue Agency and Employment and Social Development Canada need to act now to expand their post-payment verification plans to include all recipients identified as being at risk of being ineligible for benefits, then the department and agency need to carry out their plans and recover COVID-19 benefit amounts owed.”
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