A First - The Canada Revenue Agency Apologizes :CRA SOTW
Alan Baggett
Parents have hard time convincing Canada Revenue Agency their children
are real
By ALDO SANTIN, The Canadian Press
WINNIPEG — A distraught mother and father claim they’re caught in a
bureaucratic nightmare because the Canada Revenue Agency won’t
acknowledge the existence of their two daughters.
Rob Chateauneuf and his wife Tanya say the federal agency has made
stern demands that they repay the federal government almost $2,300 the
family has received in child benefit payments since June 2007 for
their daughters, Mackenzie, 4, and Madison, 18 months.
Chateauneuf said the family submitted the requested documents to
verify the births of the girls more than two months ago, but the
demands for repayment keep coming.
“How do I prove my children are real?” Chateauneuf asked.
“The hospital sent in all the forms when they were born. Are they
going to want my wife’s maternity-leave payments back, too?”
A Canada Revenue Agency spokesman refused to discuss the Chateauneuf
case, but said letters for demands of repayment would only be issued
when families failed to submit the necessary documentation requested
within a timely fashion.
Chateauneuf admits that he didn’t immediately deal with the first
demand from the Canada Revenue Agency. He explained that at the time,
he was preoccupied with a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.,
to deal with a mystery ailment that he says has afflicted him.
He said the family faxed a copy of their daughters’ birth
registrations to the validations and controls section of the Canada
Revenue Agency, but the problem hasn’t been fixed.
Chateauneuf said that when he and his wife phoned the 1-800 number
listed on the documents, a government official told them to ignore the
demands for repayments.
He said that only made the situation worse.
“Now not only do they want repayment for the money we’ve received,
they’ve stopped sending us the money that we’re legitimately entitled
to,” Chateauneuf said.
“We don’t know what to do,” he said. “How much more are they going to
want from us?”
Chateauneuf said his family has sent another copy of their daughters’
birth registration and a letter from the doctor who attended to their
birth by registered mail to a Canada Revenue Agency office in Sudbury,
Ont.
He said that his wife was told on the phone that their troubles are
the result of a national audit carried out routinely by the Canada
Revenue Agency.
“All the information about our daughters was filed automatically by
the hospitals,” he said. “It’s not like we’re making this up ... it
comes from the hospitals.”
“The government should be spending our tax dollars on something that
doesn’t hurt people.” (Winnipeg Free Press)
And the conclusion?
Ottawa Believes Daughters ARE REAL
WINNIPEG -- Federal tax officials have apologized to a Manitoba couple
for accusing them of lying about having two young daughters. Tanya
Chateauneuf said she spoke to a Canada Revenue Agency official
Tuesday.
"She said she was sorry this happened to us and said the money we're
owed would be in our bank account by the 20th."
The Chateauneufs had found themselves in a bureaucratic nightmare
after they were randomly audited and asked to verify the legitimacy of
claims individuals make for child allowance payment and child tax
benefits.
They later sent in copies of their children's birth registration and a
letter from the doctor who attended their births. Then they received a
second demand for payment and then learned that their monthly child-
care allowance payments had been stopped.
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