WINNIPEG -- Premier Brian Pallister announced that 78,442 Manitobans will receive money from the Risk Recognition Program.

Pallister made the announcement on Wednesday morning.

The $120 million program was set up to show appreciation to front-line workers during the pandemic.

Pallister said each person is eligible for $1,530, but the money is taxable, so the province has applied a 10 per cent withholding tax to the Canada Revenue Agency.

With the tax being deducted, each person will receive $1,377 and will be notified by email. The money will be deposited in their account through a direct deposit.

Of those who applied for the program, the province said more than 37,000 people are working in public-facing essential roles in retail services, over 27,000 are healthcare workers, over 9,300 work in social services and over 3,400 are transportation workers.

When the program was first announced, the province said there has been around 90,000 applicants for it, but Pallister said that number did drop.

"There were approximately 10 per cent that were ineligible and there were various reasons. I think the biggest one might have been some of the employers took it upon themselves to apply hundreds of their workers who were outside the parameters," said Pallister.

The premier was also asked if the process to pay people has taken too long since the program was announced and Pallister said they had to get it right.

"It's important to make sure you're not sending out cheques and then asking for them back. You know we wanted to make sure because we are dividing it among the eligible recipients that we had a pretty accurate number. I would argue four weeks is not a long time to roll out of a program of this complexity."

Pallister said he wanted to thank those in the civil service for the speed that they worked on this program and that they got it right.

He added he hopes there isn't an appeal process for some of the people who don't get a payment but he understands that there is a margin of error and he just hopes it's as low as possible.