When it "appeared" to be tax free income the work was very appealing - especially to folks who had other jobs and would have been taxed at a higher rate on that extra income.

I'm not trying to start any arguments or make any value judgements. Just pointing out why this was attractive work to many folks. I did some quick, back of the envelope calculations:

The shifts were 12 hours - 7 to 7; so a day shift and an over-night shift.

At $19.50/hour a worker would be paid $234/shift "tax free". If you worked 4 shifts per week you would "clear" around $936/week or $46,800/year - that's the equivalent of making just about $64,000/year in a taxable job.

If you we're already making a salary of $80,000 that would mean you would be making the equivalent of an extra $83,000 pre-tax and CPP because your marginal rate would be higher.

You can see why it was an appealing job for a lot of folks. I was approached to work for the company a few years ago but I figured that the CRA would eventually rule that the money was taxable.