Is this unemployment benefits fraud? Nova Scotia

Unemployment benefits fraud? Is this benefits fraud in Nova Scotia, & what is the statute of limitations?

I am not a Canadian citizen or resident. This question is about relatives in Canada.

Some years ago, I received a call from my sister & brother-in-law, who lived in Nova Scotia. We discussed job hunting, as he & I were both older-middle aged workers & had both had difficulty finding jobs. He told me that he had applied for an unemployment job retraining program to learn a trade. The retraining program was about a year, as I recall; in order to qualify, he was supposed to live in Halifax. BIL told me that he had stated that he lived in Halifax, at his sister’s address, when in fact he lived on his elderly parents’ property about an hour away; he said ‘You gotta do what you gotta do’. I heard my sister in the background, yelling ‘Don’t tell her that’, indicating that she knew that he had lied on his benefits application.

He completed the program that was obtained by false statements. I do not know whether he was also being paid unemployment insurance benefits during this time; based on research, I believe that he was receiving payments. If he was paid, that was about one year of job retraining & payments obtained by false statements.

Does Canada care about this? What about his wife, who was not a citizen but was receiving considerable health & other benefits from the government, & knew about this false application for benefits – is that conspiring to commit fraud? Are there other implications, like taxes?