Some affordability cheques delivered for those who’ve died

While many people are peeking eagerly into their mailboxes this week waiting for their $500 affordability cheques to arrive, some cheques won’t be getting to their intended recipients.

A number of cheques have been mailed to people who’ve died.

The Saskatchewan government used the list of those who filed their 2021 income taxes to make up the list of those who are to get a cheque. But Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said some people may have passed away since filing.

“We have no way to know that they died,” said Harpauer.

The minister said the tax rolls were the best and only option for compiling the list. Other options like using information from the Ministry of Health would be out of the question because that information is protection by privacy laws.

“It’s not perfect, but it was what we estimated or determined was the most reliable database we could use,” said Harpauer.

She dismissed suggestions the government should have cross-checked the database with something else to avoid this problem.

“I’m not sure how we’d access that information because, literally, someone could have died yesterday and they’ll get their cheque Friday and we just have no way to gather that information,” she said. “It would be a huge undertaking for, I believe, a relatively small amount of money in a $450-million initiative.”

More than 900,000 cheques are being sent out. Harpauer couldn’t say how many cheques may have been sent out to people who’ve died, but Statistics Canada’s provisional weekly death counts show more than 6,000 people died between Jan. 8 and July 23 this year in Saskatchewan.

Harpauer said anyone who receives a cheque for someone who has died can deposit it into the estate account or, if the estate has already been closed, return it.