Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, December 14, 2022 -

The Auditor General of Canada found in a 2022 audit that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and Employment and Social Development Canada (EDSC) have not done enough to help hard‑to‑reach Canadians access federal benefits put in place by Parliament to support low‑income individual and families, including the Canada Child Benefit, Canada Workers Benefit, Guaranteed Income Supplement, and Canada Learning Bond.

Although CRA and ESDC have increased efforts since 2018 to raise awareness of federal program benefits among people who most need them, government officials do not know whether most of their targeted outreach activities have helped to increase benefit take‑up rates for hard‑to‑reach Canadians. Also, the Department and Agency do not currently have a strategy for ensuring Canadians who have difficulties accessing benefits are ultimately successful.

A report by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts, presented today by Committee Chairman John Williamson, makes five recommendations to ensure that the Auditor General’s recommendations are adequately addressed, and that CRA and ESDC provide evidence of this to the Committee through progress reports.