A federal department responsible for handing out financial benefits to Canadians who stopped working during the COVID-19 pandemic has fired 49 of its own staff who applied for and received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) while they were still employed.
Testifying before the Commons public accounts committee on Feb. 2, Mary Crescenzi, assistant deputy minister of the Integrity Services Branch of Service Canada, a program operated by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), said an internal investigation was conducted when the department knew about employees who claimed the $2,000 per month COVID-19 benefit.
