Winnipeg woman declared dead by CRA twice in 10 months — but she's alive

A Winnipeg senior has been declared dead by Canada Revenue Agency twice in a period of 10 months, even though she's alive and living in a personal care home.

This is the second time in 10 months that Dave Gibeault, the woman's son, has received a letter addressed to the "Estate of the late Mary Gibeault."

When the first letter arrived in March of 2021, the man from St. Andrews, Man., knew there was an error because he visits her in a Winnipeg personal care home daily.

"I see her every day, I take care of her, so my fear wasn't that she had died," he told CBC News. "The first thing I thought of was I have an uphill battle in front of me."

He certainly did.

"It took several weeks and a whole lot of frustration [to get her reclassified as alive]. Hours and hours and hours on the phone, and lost income as a result," Gibeault said, noting that he had to provide proof that he has power of attorney twice.

Gibeault said he thought his problems with the revenue agency were behind him until he got a second letter last week.

"So very frustrating. I know this is going to be another uphill battle. But what they're asking for, they're not going to get. I'm not going to pay them back money that she's entitled to," he said.

The CRA can't comment on individual cases for privacy reasons, but regrets the error, the agency's spokesperson, Hannah Wardell, said in an email on Thursday.

The cause of such a mistake can vary, she said. It could be human error, a miscommunication between government departments, or most often a mistake made when a return is filed on behalf of a deceased person with an incorrect SIN number.

"Although rare, it is possible that multiple errors could appear on the same taxpayer's account if the CRA receives incorrect information from more than one source," Wardell said.

"We take these situations seriously, and continue to validate and analyze these errors and implement changes as necessary, to ensure that, wherever possible, these types of errors are prevented."

When an error is made, the CRA simply removes the date of death from the person's file and their CRA account is restored. This also reverses any letters or changes to taxes or benefits that were issued in error, Wardell said.

The reversal is immediate, but it can sometimes take a few weeks for letters to be reissued and adjustments to be recalculated.