Hello. We begin today with a special note from Patrick Brethour, The Globe’s tax and fiscal policy reporter:
When it comes to tax debts, there’s usually no such thing as an honest mistake.
It’s certainly possible that a taxpayer can make a good-faith error. It’s just that Ottawa usually doesn’t care all that much. A mistake, even an honest one? Please pay up. An error based on our incorrect information? Sorry about that. Now, please pay up.
Exceptions to that rule have been rare, and usually limited to waiving interest and penalties, not the underlying debt. Rare that is, until this week, when the Liberal government reversed course, and announced that self-employed individuals who had wrongly obtained up to $14,000 under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit could keep those payments. At issue was confusion over what qualified to meet the CERB requirement of at least $5,000 in income. In the early days of the pandemic, Canada Revenue Agency agents had told some applicants that gross business income (before deducting expenses) could be used. Later, the CRA made it clear that net income had to be used, leaving some short of the mark -- and on the receiving end of letters asking them either to demonstrate their eligibility or to repay benefits.
The government veered away from those repayment demands on Tuesday, instead saying self-employed recipients could keep their CERB funds, so long as they met all other criteria.
You can read more about that issue, and other tax and fiscal matters, in the Tax and Spend newsletter, which explores the intersection of politics, economics and business, and the intricacies of government taxation and spending. Sign up to get Tax and Spend delivered to you at 10 a.m. every Monday.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
The federal government had two COVID-19 announcements today: the measures requiring that air travellers to Canada quarantine in hotels at their own expense for three days will take effect Feb. 22; and Canada has purchased another four million doses of the Moderna vaccine and accelerated delivery of the Pfizer vaccine.
Quebec’s vaccination campaign in long-term care homes appears to be delivering results, with COVID-19 numbers down substantially in those places.
Ontario’s science advisers are warning the government not to let up on stay-at-home orders, because variants could cause a dramatic third wave to erupt in the province by the end of March.
Immigration to Canada dropped 46 per cent last year.
The federal government approved Air Canada’s takeover of Air Transat.
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says he is beginning to work with the U.S.’s Biden administration on a continental strategy to fight climate change, though he acknowledges he needs to push back on some elections of the Buy American policy.
And Nunavut MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq shares her story about why she needed to take two months off to deal with burnout, depression and anxiety after a recent tour of communities devastated by suicide, homicide and housing crises: “I returned to my place in Ottawa for two weeks of isolation before heading back to the territory to finish the tour and I was absolutely riddled with anxiety. I couldn’t understand how everyone is okay with letting people live this way. I was losing sleep. I wasn’t eating. I couldn’t figure out how to battle this monster, to break the cycle. I ended up in the emergency room,” she said.
Brooks Fallis (The Globe and Mail) on how things could be about to get a whole lot worse: “Canada sits at a pandemic crossroads. Second waves are receding thanks to successful lockdowns and restrictions. Reopening of schools and economies without meaningful improvements in surveillance or containment is set to intersect with emerging variants of concern and vaccine shortages, creating a perfect storm for a massive third wave.”
Tanya Talaga (The Globe and Mail) on Shoal Lake 39 First Nation: “The people of Iskatewizaagegan have a spiritual connection to the lake and the lands that surround it. It is a sacred trust. Under Indigenous law, they are to protect and keep safe the area for the next generations. Ontario has thumbed its nose to these truths.”
Terri Lynn Morrison (The Globe and Mail) on why Ottawa should work with Indigenous communities on clean tech: “A Canadian clean-energy transformation can help create a new relationship among Indigenous peoples, allies, governments, utilities and corporations – one that is based on a profound and powerful embrace of decolonized energy future. Such a transformation would leave Indigenous people as full partners in their energy economies, rather than relying on decisions made by non-Indigenous governments and corporations.”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on the case for a basic income: “But the case for basic income doesn’t depend on it curing the common cold: It just has to be better than what it replaces. Neither is a universal demogrant the only possible way to deliver it. Rather, the amount of the benefit can be increased or reduced in line with income, much in the style of refundable tax credits, or (more difficult, administratively) a negative income tax: below a certain threshold the government pays you; above it you pay the government.”
Chris Selley (The National Post) on Canada’s failure to use rapid COVID-19 tests: “It’s as if they don’t even understand the basic concept at hand. What’s an 8.6-per-cent false negative rate against the nearly 100 per cent of asymptomatic cases that go undetected because asymptomatic people can’t get tested in this country unless they’ve had a known exposure? Ottawa’s 20 million rapid-test orders aren’t enough to make a huge difference, but they’re more than enough to leave a dent. The situation is bewildering.”
Jason Markusoff (Maclean’s) on Alberta Premier Jason Kenney: “Nearly two years into Kenney’s stint as Alberta Premier, nothing is what it seemed. The disorientation runs deeper than the common, pandemic-induced challenges and public malaise that has undone the political agendas of leaders around the world; deeper even than the profound hardship and unemployment inflicted by the downturn of the energy economy. Albertans are coming to realize they’re in the midst of a deeper, structural change, not another bust to be succeeded by another boom.”
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Chris Hannay