Number of CRA employees fired for inappropriately claiming CERB approaches 300

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) national headquarters in Ottawa on Friday, June 28, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has provided new data on the number of employees who were found to have received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The investigation into inappropriate CERB payments began in June 2023. All CRA employees were reviewed and 600 were identified as requiring additional investigations.

In an email to CTV News Ottawa, the CRA said that as of June 17, it has found 289 employees who received CERB payments when they were ineligible.

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That figure is up from the 232 employees the agency reported in March.

Those individuals are no longer employed by the CRA.

"Anyone who is found to be ineligible for the CERB, including CRA employees who inappropriately applied for and received it, will be required to repay the amounts if they haven’t already done so," CRA spokesperson Charles Drouin said.

Some employees who received CERB, however, were deemed eligible.

"Being a current employee of the CRA does not necessarily mean an individual was ineligible for the CERB. As the CRA employs individuals with a variety of employment profiles such as temporary and student contracts, some individuals were eligible to receive the CERB. As a result of this process, as of August 23, 2024, 135 employees have been found to be eligible so far," Drouin said.

CERB paid eligible Canadians $2,000 per month between March and September 2020 when businesses shut down, leaving many people without work. It was replaced by the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), which ended in December 2021. The CRA is seeking to recover billions in CERB overpayments.

The CRA employs approximately 60,000 people. Drouin said the agency takes all forms of wrongdoing seriously.

"The confidence and trust that Canadians put in the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is a cornerstone of Canada’s tax system. This trust is based, among other things, on the high level of ethics and integrity demonstrated by CRA employees," Drouin wrote.

"The CRA takes any form of wrongdoing very seriously, and is strongly committed to protecting the integrity of Canada’s tax and benefit systems. The actions of some should in no way undermine the honesty and integrity of the thousands of CRA employees who work every day in an exemplary manner to serve Canadians."

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Josh Pringle