There are more than four million paper cheques from the government valued at more than $2 billion since 2022 that have been sent out to Canadians — and have not been cashed.
That’s according to the latest data from Public Services and Procurement Canada, which released a response to an order paper question submitted by Conservative MP Adam Chambers.
The response was tabled in the House of Commons on Monday with dozens of different categories for government cheques, with many sent by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
This comes as Canadians struggling with the higher cost of living report having to make sacrifices and lifestyle changes to maintain their finances. Some have even reported dipping into their savings accounts or pausing their long-term goals in order to pay for immediate needs like food and shelter.
With so many cheques reported as uncashed, this means many Canadians are leaving money on the table.
More than 725,000 of the former Canada Carbon Rebate cheques mailed since 2022 have yet to be cashed, with a total value of over $141 million.
There are also nearly 850,000 GST/HST tax credits that are uncashed with a value of over $118 million. These are the same payments the federal government sends out to qualifying Canadians that may be in a lower-income bracket four times per year, which Prime Minister Mark Carney recently announced would receive a boost to help with affordability challenges.
Many Canada Child Benefit paper cheques are also reported uncashed in the report, totalling more than 130,500 with a value of nearly $43 million.
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Some income tax refunds from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) were also on the list — specifically those that may be paid after filing a T1 tax return.
More than 450,000 of those T1 refunds as paper cheques have not been cashed since 2022, with a total value of nearly $392 million.
There are also nearly 4,500 GST rebates paper cheques that have not been cashed, totalling more than $25 million. These are different from the GST credit, where a rebate could happen after a business submits their GST tax returns, which can result is a rebate if they overpaid.
According to the Government of Canada, CRA and other federal government cheques never expire, and Canadian taxpayers can confirm if they have uncashed cheques by viewing their CRA accounts online, or by calling the agency directly.
Direct deposit remains the preferred method of the CRA and other government agencies to send money to qualified Canadians because of its efficiency.
Still, many are receiving paper cheques.
“Direct deposit is the payment method of choice for the Government of Canada. Direct deposit is a secure, reliable form of payment and the cheapest method of payment when compared to other methods of payments,” said Public Services and Procurement Canada in the response.
“Public Services and Procurement Canada promotes the benefits of direct deposit to departments and agencies as well as to recipients. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of each department or agency to work with their payment recipients to transition away from cheques.”
In the past, Public Services and Procurement says it has tried offering prepaid cards to qualified Canadians who may be unable to use direct deposit options, but adds those efforts were not received well and it was not cost-effective.
“While the Government of Canada does not run its own prepaid card program, it can and does issue direct deposits that load funds onto reloadable prepaid cards already held by Canadians. The government has considered creating a government prepaid card program in the past, but it was deemed not cost-effective compared to direct deposit,” said Public Services and Procurement.
“Additionally, public opinion research done in 2017 and 2020 concluded that a significant majority of Canadians who still receive payments from the Government by cheque would not be receptive to receiving payments via prepaid card.”
According to the report, the administrative cost of issuing a paper cheque is $1.84.
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