..Bloggers Note : with Transcript
..
the Parliamentary budget officer
this week criticized the fact that the
government decided that it's not worth
going after the 15 billion dollars in
overpayments to Big corporations
that they received
for uh salary help that's money that
they should not have received that's
money that's coming out of the pockets
of Canadians it's the equivalent of a
thousand dollars for every Canadian
family when will the Prime Minister
finally
go get the money that was illegally
given to these major corporations
The Honorable parliamentary secretary
speaker I'll remind The Honorable
access to it that's the public record
last week at the Public Accounts
committee the commissioner of the CRA
made clear that verification work with
respect to determining eligibility for
the various coveted emergency programs
is ongoing it was the CRA public
employees who vary in a very focused way
helped to administer the the various
programs in place during covet and it's
them now that are carrying out the vital
verification work this work is taken
seriously it's fiscally responsible
approach he voted for it let's continue
The Honorable leader of the opposition
well no the prime minister's top tax
collector Bob Hamilton the commissioner
of CRI said quote it wouldn't be worth
the effort to review and recover every
of the every of the one 15.5 billion
dollars paid out illegally to these
corporations wouldn't be worth the
effort
billion dollars equals one thousand
dollars for every single household in
Canada money taken from working class
single moms who can't feed their kids
and given to wealthy corporations with
connections to this government why won't
they take back the money that was
illegally taken and give it back to
Canadians
The Honorable parliamentary secretary
Mr Speaker the the opposition leader
talks about Canadians where was he at
the height of the pandemic when
Canadians needed their government he was
talking about an austerity agenda he was
talking about Cuts he wasn't behind the
various programs that helped to sustain
this country the work of the CRA
continues as I mentioned before it's
ongoing it is serious its focus in fact
you should check the record in November
of 2020 it was he and his party that
voted to stop that work on the part of
the CRA thank you very much
leader of the opposition that's
absolutely false where was I I was in
this house telling the government that
they shouldn't pay wage subsidies to
corporations that were wealthy enough to
pay out dividends bonuses
[Applause]
and now and now we find out that it gets
worse that there were 37 corporations
that received the wage subsidy worth 81
billion dollars who paid out dividends
to their wealthy shareholders this was
not money for workers it was what money
for the wealthy why is it this
government always gives more to the have
Yachts by taking from the have-nots
The Honorable parliamentary secretary
German is from National Revenue Mr
Speaker again when it comes to vital
coveted programs that help to keep
businesses going he was against all of
that the key fact about the wage subsidy
is that small businesses and
medium-sized businesses in particular
were kept going throughout the pandemic
that's what we have to keep in mind in
fact when it comes to the vital
avoidance work and evasion work that the
CRA carries out the conservatives cut
the CRA budgets it couldn't do that work
effectively in 2015 and onwards we've
invested in the CRA to carry out
avoidance work to carry out evasion work
investigations are up as are criminal
convictions and time spent in jail among
