Nearly half of China's major cities are sinking, researchers say
Nearly half of China's major cities are suffering 'moderate to severe' levels of subsidence, putting millions at risk of flooding especially as sea levels rise.
The Canada Revenue Agency is sending out a new round of letters to pandemic aid recipients to verify they were eligible for the help, and warning of potential need for repayments.
It's the second time the agency is mailing Canada Emergency Response Benefit recipients as part of a process to verify the eligibility of the millions of Canadians who received the $500-a-week benefit.
The CRA sent out more than 441,000 letters to CERB recipients near the end of 2020 asking them to verify they met eligibility rules for the payments.
Thousands more are going out beginning Thursday, this time targeting recipients who may have earned more than the $1,000 a month the Liberals allowed beginning in mid-April 2020.
The agency says the people who are receiving letters have tax information that suggest they earned too much income during periods when they received aid.
The letters say the CRA will work on flexible repayment plans for anyone who has to give back some of the money, without interest, but warns that won't be the case for those who don't respond to the government missive.
The federal government quickly rolled out the CERB at the onset of the pandemic, only asking applicants to attest they were eligible.
The government opted for few upfront validation checks to speed up payments during lockdowns over March and April 2020 when three million jobs were lost.
In the end, the CERB doled out $81.64 billion to 8.9 million recipients.
The government has long said that officials would review claims after the fact to claw back wrongful payments.
Following a critical review by auditor general Karen Hogan last March about missed opportunities to prevent fraud and wrongful payments, the government said it would spend four years tracking down every wrongful payment.
"The few letters that will go out this week, it's the beginning. We'll start with a few thousand," said Marc Lemieux, the CRA's assistant commissioner in charge of collections and verification. "Eventually, though, for a program of that size, I think it's hundreds of thousands of letters that we'll have to send and ask people to validate their eligibility."
Letters sent in late 2020 asked some recipients to prove they met one criteria for the CERB: that they earned at least $5,000 in the preceding 12-month period.
The letters, however, caused concerns among low-income earners who feared not being able to repay, and interpreted the CRA's message as setting a deadline for repayment by the end of that year.
The agency appears to have learned from that experience and has massaged the message this time around.
Lemieux said the letters this time say that the agency has some information as opposed to none, and wants extra details to validate someone's CERB payment.
"People may have made mistakes, their situation may have changed during the period for which they were receiving the benefits," he said.
No one at this point is being asked to repay. They'll have 45 days to contact the CRA, after which the agency may decide that the person owes the money back. Lemieux said the agency plans to be flexible on repayment plans for any amounts owing.
"We may require some information about their financial situation, and then we'll see with them what is possible, and we'll see if we could accommodate them," he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2022.
Nearly half of China's major cities are suffering 'moderate to severe' levels of subsidence, putting millions at risk of flooding especially as sea levels rise.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
The judge presiding over the trial of a man accused of fatally running over a Toronto police officer is telling jurors the possible verdicts they may reach based on the evidence in the case.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball's highest scorer Caitlin Clark's first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
Colin Jost, who co-anchors Saturday Night Live's 'Weekend Update,' revealed who he thinks is one of the best hosts on the show.
Sophie Kinsella, the best-selling author behind the 'Shopaholic' book series, has revealed that she is receiving treatment for brain cancer.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.