Fish Harvester Benefit and Grant Program

To help fish harvesters in Canada impacted by COVID-19, the Government of Canada created the Fish Harvester Benefit and Grant Program to provide financial support to self-employed harvesters and self-employed fishing crew.

For more information, consult the Program overview and eligibility page.

On this page

• Overpayment reminder outreach
• Overpayments
• File processing post-October 31, 2021
• Contact information

Overpayment reminder outreach

The Program will be reaching out to remind individuals who have overpayment obligations about repayment. Individuals with amounts owing are encouraged to make their repayments at their earliest convenience, and no later than March 31, 2023 to avoid interest charges.

In February 2022, the program waived interest charges on overpayment amounts until January 1, 2023. That waiver period has been extended to April 1, 2023, on which date the calculation of interest at the Bank of Canada rate will commence on unpaid overpayment amounts owing.

The extension of the interest waiver period is intended to provide further flexibility to individuals with repayment obligations who might benefit from the additional time and opportunity to earn income without facing interest charges, and to provide interest relief to those individuals affected by Hurricane Fiona in September 2022.

The reminder outreach will involve DFO sending reminder emails or letters and account statements to individuals, and Service Canada making reminder telephone calls.

The reminder emails, letters, and account statements will be issued starting in January 2023. Service Canada’s reminder calls will begin shortly thereafter.

To pay by cheque or money order, please make funds payable to the “Receiver General for Canada” and send your repayment to:

Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Accounting Operations
301 Bishop Drive
Fredericton, NB  E3C 1B2

Payments can also be made by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or wire transfer. Should you wish to pay by credit card or obtain instructions on how to pay by wire transfer, you can contact us at (855) 859-6271 or email us at DFO.Collection.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

Anyone wishing to discuss their repayment further may contact Service Canada at 1-833-674-8283, TTY: 1-800-465-7735.

Overpayments

Some of the reasons individuals may be in an overpayment situation include cases in which they:

• were deemed not eligible for some or all of the program following information verification from CRA or other records requested by DFO to support fishing income losses
• have received payment in excess of their entitlement, based on actual fishing income losses as per their CRA tax filing information
• have received the first benefit payment but did not apply for the second benefit payment by October 31, 2021
• applied for or received Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA), and/or Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) payments.

If you are in an overpayment situation, you will have been:

• notified by letter or email that you must pay back a portion or all of your initial benefit and/or grant payment
• provided with instructions on how to proceed for repayment, included in the letter or email.

If you did not agree with the overpayment finding, you were provided 30 days from the date of the overpayment letter to:

• appeal the decision, and
• provide supporting documentation

File processing post-October 31, 2021

The window for phase-two applications is now closed. Thank you to everyone who applied for the second benefit payment by the October 31, 2021 deadline.

1. Phase-one overpayment letters

The deadline for appeals of a phase-one overpayment finding was October 15, 2021.

2. Phase-two applications

The deadline for phase-two applications was October 31 2021.

3. Phase-two appeals

If you decided to appeal a phase-two overpayment decision, you were provided with the 30-day window, noted above, in which to notify Service Canada of your intention to appeal the decision and provide supplementary documentation in support of your appeal. Phase-two appeal processing is now complete.

Phase-one benefit recipients who did not apply for the second benefit payment: If you applied for and received a benefit payment in phase one but did not apply for the second part of the benefit payment, you will have received an overpayment letter for the phase-one amount.

Contact information

Service Canada delivers the Fish Harvester Benefit and Grant Program on behalf of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). This includes:

• mailing out tax slips
• overpayment reminder calls

Anyone wishing to discuss their repayment further may contact Service Canada at:

• 1-833-674-8283
• TTY: 1-800-465-7735