Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
Tuesday’s federal budget promised to amend the Financial Administration Act to ensure that government payments accepted for deposit at Canadian banks will carry whatever title the government wants.
“The fact that they haven’t been doing it now for many years led us to take this position,” Guilbeault said.
His department has been battling with banks for almost two years over how carbon rebates are labelled when they are deposited directly into bank accounts.
The first rebate deposits in 2022 were labelled very generically — “federal payment” and “EFT Canada,” for example — which meant recipients had no idea why they were getting the money.
Some banks, but not all, have since amended…
