B.C. unfairly clawed back COVID-19 benefit to thousands, ombudsperson's report says
![Ombudsperson Jay Chalke Ombudsperson Jay Chalke speaks at a news conference in Victoria, B.C., in an April 2017 file image. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito](/content/dam/ctvnews/en/images/2022/5/31/ombudsperson-jay-chalke-1-5926911-1654040162358.jpg)
Thousands of people in British Columbia saw their $1,000 tax-free COVID-19 benefit unfairly clawed back by the provincial government, says an ombudsperson report.
So far, 12,000 people have been told to repay their B.C. Emergency Benefit that the government said was for workers who had been affected by the pandemic, Ombudsperson Jay Chalke said Tuesday.
He said his report, "No Notice, No Benefit," examined how retroactive changes by the provincial government, requiring applicants to meet a deadline for filing their 2019 taxes to be eligible, saw people having to pay back the benefit.
The claw back resulted because the government didn't properly communicate the deadline and by the time it was announced retroactively, 90 per cent of applicants had applied for the cash, Chalke said at a news conference.
He said the original benefit application when the program started in May 2020 did not set any firm deadline for people to have filed their 2019 income taxes, only that they had either filed or agreed to file.
Legislation introduced eight weeks later set a Jan. 1, 2021, deadline for filing the tax return.
But applicants were not told the retroactive change made them ineligible, said Chalke, who recommended the government give those people 90 days to file their 2019 taxes, allowing forgiveness of the debt or return of the benefit.
“As we said in the report, the ministry didn't tell people the change would apply in that first (application) window, 90 per cent of the applicants by the way,” he said. “Not only did government not tell people who had already agreed to the early, open-ended tax filing requirement, but when the ministry audited the program thousands of people ended up having to pay back the benefit.”
The B.C. government announced the one-time, tax-free benefit in March 2020, paying out $653 million.
Chalke said he found it “ironic” the B.C. government, along with other provincial governments, recently called on the federal government to extend the repayment deadline for the federal Canadian Emergency Business Account pandemic loan program for small businesses, but rejected similar extension recommendations by the Office of the Ombudsperson.
A response in the report from Heather Wood, the deputy minister of finance, said the government won't be implementing the recommendation because the benefit is an income tax refund for 2019, regardless of whether people understood that.
The statement said filing a 2019 income tax return was a requirement of the benefit.
“The ministry does not agree with the Ombudsperson that this requirement can reasonably be understood to be an open-ended promise that could be met at any time in the future as determined by each individual applicant,” said the statement.
Chalke said he's “astonished” the government is not agreeing with his recommendation to allow the early applicants who have since filed their 2019 taxes or agree to within 90 days to keep the payment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6976926.1721883767!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
DEVELOPING Alberta's request for federal assistance approved after fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media that Ottawa has approved Alberta's request for federal assistance after a fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday.
BREAKING Loblaw, George Weston to settle class action over bread price-fixing for $500 million
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and its parent company George Weston Ltd. say they have agreed to pay $500-million to settle a class-action lawsuit regarding their involvement in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme.
EXCLUSIVE One address, 76 foreign currency dealers: Inside Canada's money service business 'clusters'
An IJF and CTV News investigation has found dozens of cases across Canada where multiple money services businesses (MSBs) are incorporated at the same address, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of the location's actual occupant. One money laundering expert calls it an 'abuse of the system.'
U.K. police officer suspended after video appears to show a man being kicked in head
A British police officer was suspended from all duties Thursday after a video was posted on social media that appeared to show an officer kicking and stamping on the head of a man lying on the floor of a terminal at Manchester Airport.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Norad intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers operating together near Alaska in apparent first
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
Biden explains why he ended re-election bid in Oval Office address
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Jasper mayor says alert system to be reviewed after message 'glitch'
More than 25,000 people have been displaced from Jasper National Park since wildfires started to threaten the picturesque corner of Alberta Rockies on Monday, but the mayor of its namesake municipality says not everyone received an evacuation alert when it was sent out.
Unclaimed bodies are piling up in Newfoundland. A funeral director blames the government
A funeral director in St. John's says the bodies piling up in freezers at Newfoundland and Labrador's largest hospital likely belong to people whose loved ones couldn't get enough government help to pay for a funeral.