Canadian Politics Today

You are such a trusting soul. The government won't get back even a quarter of what has been given to people who shouldn't have got it. Any really bad screw ups will be conveniently swept under the rug. No one will ever know because people are to apathetic to care.

When you're putting out a fire, you don't worry about how much water you used. The money kept the economy afloat and people fed and housed.

Money isn't water and wouldn't you even want to know where it went after the fact. No post mortem to see what went right and what went wrong. No oversight or accountability at all. It's your money, don't you care?

All of the accountability is backloaded, by design. We knew that in April.

All of the accountability is backloaded, by design. We knew that in April.

Then why is government refusing to give information?

I support in general the idea that spending that fuckton of money to keep businesses from collapsing, jobs from vanishing, people from losing their homes, and all of these other things, was a good investment.  But I reject the idea that we shouldn't worry about where it all went.

 -k

I'm not saying that we shouldn't worry about where it all went. I'm saying that the time to do that is tax filing season of the upcoming year. That was the way the systems were designed from the very beginning of this rollout, and for good reason. It was the only way to achieve the necessary speed.

Then why is government refusing to give information?

I would posit, it's because a lot of the information doesn't exist, and that other information isn't at this point able to be legally released.

I would posit, it's because a lot of the information doesn't exist, and that other information isn't at this point able to be legally released.

You mean they don't know where the money went? Even more reason to be concerned.

It's not the job of the Government of Canada to out people and corporations who needed pandemic assistance. Corporate filings will require that info to be public. Privacy laws exist, and should be followed. I don't want to live in a rescue shaming country.

If they needed it they would have been eligible (if the programs were made properly).  These benefits weren't a free-for-all for anyone to take regardless of reason.

Everyone knew that fast relief meant little to no verification at the outset, as you said.  There's also privacy concerns...is it legal to disclose income that individuals are getting from gov?  I'm not sure how that works in other programs, like EI, CPP etc.

It's a bit concerning that people like Kevin Page are concerned, he knows far better than us.  It seems probable to me that with many people getting benefits they aren't entitled to (by nature of the program) the optics on the gov will be bad so they would have incentive to suppress info.

Knowing how government works in other programs, the amount of effort the gov will dedicate to go after overpayments will be directly related to whether it's in their benefit or not, despite the law.  If it costs more to hire/pay public servants to claw that money back than the amount of what they will actually get back they won't bother...unless they're worried about optics of public perception of doing that, which they are (for now).

For other programs like EI and CPP they're decent at going after overpayments, it just might take a long time.