Travel advisor challenges CRA’s claim for COVID-19 benefit repayment

In the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 restrictions were in full effect, Brendan Whitney took a leave from his role as a travel advisor to care for his 10-year-old son at home.

With schools closed, he had no childcare options, said Whitney, who lives in Saint John, N.B., sharing his story with CTV News.

Whitney applied for both the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB), receiving several thousand dollars in total, including $2,000 per month from CERB.

Now, five years later, he is facing letters and collection calls from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), part of a federal effort to recover over $10 billion in pandemic benefits the government believes were paid in error.

Whitney told CTV that the CRA is demanding an immediate payment of $13,000.

“They claim I was not eligible for any of the benefits I received,” he said.

The CRA argues Whitney wasn’t employed the day before his benefit period began, which would make him ineligible. But Whitney says that isn’t true.

“I was employed for four consecutive years at the same job at the same title,” he said.

He provided his government-issued employment records and tried to schedule phone appointments with the CRA—but with little success.

The stress of it all has been relentless.

“This doesn’t make you feel good about yourself, being treated as if you’re lying to them and that you did something wrong, when all you did was apply for a benefit that you checked all the boxes for,” Whitney told CTV.

A similar pattern

PAX has contacted Whitney to learn more about his situation and the details of his case.

But it echoes a story we shared last year involving another travel advisor who was asked to repay COVID-era benefits to the CRA.

As previously reported, Ontario-based travel advisor Judith Coates of Wired for Travel won a battle against the CRA over $33,000 in CERB and CRB benefits after a multi-year saga.

But it wasn’t an easy win for the independent travel advisor.

READ MORE: David & Goliath: How one independent travel advisor took on the CRA—and won

Speaking to PAX, Coates explained how she had to submit all kinds of documents—bank statements, commission records — to persuade the CRA to reverse course. And even then, her appeal was repeatedly denied.

With few options left, Coates filed a federal judicial review—a last-resort legal move.

But even that wasn’t easy as Coates struggled to find a law firm that would take on her case. Most firms, she said, only do big corporate tax appeals, at exorbitant rates.

Eventually, through her accountant, she found Beitel Tax Law in Toronto, which charged her a flat (and reasonable) fee for re-filing her application with the CRA and advising her through the process.

“I’d rather pay someone to help me do the work than give the money back to the government,” Coates said at the time. “This was about principle. I knew I qualified.”

The case was then escalated to a supervisor within the CRA—someone who, for the first time, appeared to have some understanding of how independent travel advisors earn income.

Eventually, the CRA reversed its decision and it seemed Coates was eligible all along.

The bigger picture

It was a welcome victory, but the case illustrates how the CRA can sometimes fail to account for the nuances of how travel advisors earn—or in some cases, don’t earn—money.

“The CRA doesn’t understand that we don’t get paid until a client travels – even though we’ve done the work,” said Coates. “During COVID, people weren’t travelling. I was working full-time, helping clients cancel and rebook. But I was making nothing. I was volunteering.”

Coates believes many travel advisors facing repayment demands from the CRA are simply paying up.

“They think, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be able to fight this,’” she said. “And it’s embarrassing. You feel like you did something wrong—even when you didn’t. That’s why more people aren’t coming forward.”

Her message to others? “Don’t give up,” she said. “Just because the CRA says no the first time doesn’t mean no. You have to escalate it. And escalate it again. Don’t just walk away.”

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