Several dozen tree planters recently found out they won't be getting paid because the Canada Revenue Agency is seizing the money that would have gone to their wages.
At the end of the summer, their contractor went bankrupt and the employees were still owed more than $150,000 in wages.
Their employer had the money and tried to pay them before going bankrupt but that's when Canada Revenue stepped in.
The contractor himself owed the government money as well and the CRA said nobody gets paid before it does.
They're basically taking our wages to pay off someone else's tax bill," said tree planter, Alain Rodrigue, "everybody is angry about it obviously, but a lot of people are, most people are resigned to the fact that the only way we're going to get paid is if Canada Revenue Agency returns our money and most people are pretty much resigned to the fact that you can't really deal with them."
The government has legislation that says that the first to collect will be the Canada Revenue Agency and the legislation often changes because various departments are always trying to jump to front of the line.
One B.C. MP is questioning why the government is doing this, considering the times.
"One of the biggest economic recovery packages you can actually do is pay your workers because they're going to spend it in their local economies, they're going to support their local restaurant, they're going to do all kinds of things so really it will probably save the government money if they allow the workers to collect their wages," said NDP MP Jean Crowder.
The contractor admits that he owes back taxes but he also says he asked Canada Revenue to allow him to pay his staff and that the CRA told him no and that was it.
