For Immediate Release
30 November, 2022
NL NDP Leader and MHA for St. John’s Centre, Jim Dinn, is calling on the provincial government to remove barriers to receiving cost of living relief cheques. Dinn the government should have gone with direct deposit in October with the quarterly GST payment, if getting the funds to people in need as quickly as possible was the focus. These include people not being able to update their current addresses, inability to find support needed to file taxes before the deadline, and banks withholding funds before allowing the cheques to clear.
“People have been calling our offices. For example, a single father took a cab to his bank this week expecting to be able to go do a full grocery run for his family. He was given $100 and told the other $400 was on hold for five days,” said Dinn. “This is not relief. This is one example of the stresses the Liberal Government has added to peoples’ lives with another one off announcement with no understanding of the realities people are facing.”
Transient people or those facing homelessness will not receive a cheque, as they don’t have a physical address, or they’ve moved. Women fleeing domestic violence are often unable to go home, and may have delayed their tax filings given the realities they are facing. Dinn says he’s not heard back from the Minister of Finance since these issues were raised in the House of Assembly this fall.
“We keep being told the Liberal Government’s intention was to get these cheques to people in their time of need, vulnerable people in the province, those who need these funds the most, will not receive them,” said Dinn, “What thought has the Liberal Government put into providing tax clinics so people can access these cheques?” asked Dinn. “What is the Liberal Government doing to help people file their taxes before the deadline? Why have they not reached out to banks to remind them not to place holds on government issued cheques?”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca