1522 prisoners received the $2000 monthly Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) payments from the federal government, totaling 6.1 million dollars over the course of the program.

$27.4 BILLION in suspicious COVID benefit payments.

1,500 prisoners received CERB cheques.

$60 million is under criminal investigation.

Trudeau has made a wasteful mess of Canada's finances. pic.twitter.com/wDVdIEi4h2

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) December 6, 2022

Yet a reply to an inquiry of ministry posed by Conservative MP Rob Morrison indicates that the Liberal government may have initially blocked applicants whose address was a corrections facility, however, those serving weekend time or incarcerated after their CERB application was approved could have received payments.

"As part of the CRA's ongoing post-payment verifications, which began in January 2022 and are ongoing, these individuals will be contacted to validate their eligibility."

Although billions in CERB benefits are alleged to have been improperly paid out, the government says it is not worth the effort to track down the recipients of approximately 15 billion dollars in pandemic support.

Translation: Non Canadian citizens got CERB and we don't want Canadian citizens to find out. #cdnpoli

CRA head says it 'wouldn't be worth the effort' to review all ineligible pandemic payments https://t.co/Xu3EcuBaWw

— Jim Ratt (@colina21412346) January 29, 2023

The scope of the CERB program fraud is unknown to the Auditor General.

How many of ineligible CERB payments were FRAUD? Auditor General says "We don't know"#can #canada #cndpoli #cdnpoli #news #pandemic #cerb #pandemicresponse #justintrudeau #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/nyHhuonePl

— CNDPoli🇨🇦 (@cndpolitics) December 6, 2022