Here's when Manitobans might be getting new plastic health cards
Plastic health cards will be coming to Manitobans.
The provincial government announced Thursday that funding for new plastic health cards will be allocated in the budget that is set to be released next week.
“It’s 2024 – your health coverage shouldn’t rely on a torn, ripped-up health card,” said Premier Wab Kinew in a news release.
He added there will also be a digital option along with the plastic card.
Kinew said his government anticipates being able to roll out the new cards by next year.
The government said this step is part of a bigger plan to move the health-care system away from paper and toward electronic records.
Design plans for the new cards are expected to be shared in the months ahead, according to Kinew, and the government is also working to make it easier for people to apply for or make changes to health cards.
Manitoba has been an outlier in Canada with its paper cards.
CTV News reached out to each province and territory and asked if they use paper or plastic cards – most have been using plastic for decades.
PEI, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Nunavut and the North West Territories all have plastic cards. Quebec for example has had plastic cards since 1970, according to a provincial spokesperson.
B.C. said plastic cards were introduced in 1989 and then in 2013 the government combined health cards with resident's driver's licenses.
Alberta residents have paper health cards, however, a provincial spokesperson told CTV News the province is exploring potential options for a more durable and secure health card.
The remaining provinces and territories have yet to respond.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Alberta's request for federal assistance approved after fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media that Ottawa has approved Alberta's request for federal assistance after a fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday.
Jasper mayor says alert system to be reviewed after message 'glitch'
More than 25,000 people have been displaced from Jasper National Park since wildfires started to threaten the picturesque corner of Alberta Rockies on Monday, but the mayor of its namesake municipality says not everyone received an evacuation alert when it was sent out.
Canada's premiers forced to confront escalating climate change-related disasters
Many of Canada's provincial and territorial leaders remained consumed by climate change-related natural disasters that have only escalated since they met for meetings in Halifax last week.
Biden explains why he ended re-election bid in Oval Office address
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Unclaimed bodies are piling up in Newfoundland. A funeral director blames the government
A funeral director in St. John's says the bodies piling up in freezers at Newfoundland and Labrador's largest hospital likely belong to people whose loved ones couldn't get enough government help to pay for a funeral.
U.K. police officer suspended after video appears to show a man being kicked in head
A British police officer was suspended from all duties Thursday after a video was posted on social media that appeared to show an officer kicking and stamping on the head of a man lying on the floor of a terminal at Manchester Airport.
Norad intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers operating together near Alaska in apparent first
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Monday breaks the record for the hottest day ever on Earth
Driven by oceans that won't cool down, an unseasonably warm Antarctica and worsening climate change, Earth's record hot streak dialed up this week, making Monday the hottest day humans have measured.