The Canada Revenue Agency set its sights last summer on the industrial bakery at the centre of an undercover Star investigation into temp work, according to internal Workplace Safety and Insurance Board emails obtained by the Star.Fiera Foods, along with at least 13 temporary employment agencies that supplied the factory’s production lines, were identified in emails obtained under freedom of information laws as companies the workers’ compensation board “may wish to look at” because they were facing scrutiny from the CRA.“They may be of interest to us given CRA is investigating them … just a thought,” reads an email from a WSIB project manager to the board’s assistant director of stakeholder compliance sent last June, after the tax agency requested information from the compensation board about the companies.In a statement to the Star, CRA spokeswoman Etienne Biram said the agency couldn’t comment on investigations that it “may or may not be undertaking” and could only provide “general information regarding the criminal investigations process.”“The CRA takes any allegation of non-compliance very seriously and investigates suspected cases of tax evasion, fraud and other serious violations of tax laws,” Biram said. “Where the evidence gathered during the course of an investigation suggests there are reasonable grounds to believe a tax offence has been committed, the file is referred to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada recommending for the laying of criminal charges.”David Gelbloom, Fiera Foods’ general counsel, said the company could not comment. Last year, a Star reporter worked as a temp at Fiera and was paid in cash at a payday lender without any of the required documentation or deductions. The temp agency, Magnus Services, refused to provide a pay stub or record of employment. Magnus — whose owner Aleksandr Ostrovsky refused to answer questio ...
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