CERB PENALTIES WOULD NOT BE RETROACTIVE: FEDS

Canada’s Employment Minister admits the government could have “picked better words” to scare off would-be COVID-19 relief program cheats, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “While I remain committed to not in any way penalizing someone who honestly commits a mistake or an error or somebody who gets an extra payment, there was a sentiment that we need more robust ways to enforce our measures,” Carla Qualtrough told the Senate national finance committee. A draft of Bill C-17, An Act Respecting Additional Covid-19 Measures, proposes penalties of six months in jail, fines of $5,000, as well as charges of up to three times the value of benefits fraudulently claimed under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. The program will pay a maximum of $8,000 to applicants who claim to be jobless due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conservative Sen. Larry Smith asked if a fraud warning should have been given to people at the beginning of the application process. Qualtrough said: “I think in hindsight we could have picked better words.”