Manitoba launching vaccine lottery with $2M in prizes to promote COVID-19 immunizations
The Manitoba government is launching a new lottery to encourage Manitobans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible.
Premier Brian Pallister and Manny Atwal, president and CEO of Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries, made the announcement at a news conference on Wednesday, noting the province will award nearly $2 million in cash and scholarships through this lottery.
“This lottery gives Manitobans a reason to move faster to roll up their sleeves, not once, but twice,” the premier said.
Over the summer, Manitoba will hold two lottery draws.
Manitobans are automatically entered when they receive their vaccine.
“You do not have to apply or enter to be eligible,” Atwal said.
“Every person who is immunized will automatically be entered.”
All Manitobans aged 12 years of age and older who have received at least one dose on or before Aug. 2 will be eligible for the first draw, and all Manitobans aged 12 and older who have received two doses on or before Sept. 6 will be eligible for the second.
Each lottery draw will award:
- Three $100,000 prizes in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, excluding Churchill;
- A $100,000 prize in each of the remaining regional health authorities, which includes Prairie Mountain Health, Southern Health- Santé Sud, the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority; and the Northern Regional Health Authority, including Churchill; and
- 10 draws of $25,000 for scholarships for people aged 12 to 17.
Each lottery will be held once the province enters all of the eligible immunizations as of the vaccine deadline into its database.
Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries will be responsible for conducting the lotteries, with a third-party auditor providing additional oversight.
“There are still some technical details to work through and some important steps for us to take to ensure an appropriate, secure, and legal process is implemented,” Atwal said.
The province notes a process has been put in place to make sure all the information used for the draw is protected and secure.
Any Manitoban who does not want to be part of the lottery will be able to opt-out. The province will provide information on this process in the near future.
NDP WANTS INVESTMENT IN HEALTH-CARE
NDP Leader Wab Kinew says this lottery shows the province’s “misplaced priorities,” as it is putting money towards a lottery giveaway as opposed to helping address ICU capacity.
“Every time we’ve moved into a lockdown here in Manitoba we’ve been told, ‘We have to do this to buy time for our health-care system,’ and yet Mr. Pallister and the PC cabinet seem to do everything except invest in our health-care system throughout this pandemic,” he said.
Kinew said Wednesday’s announcement is another sign that the government can find resources to do the things they want to do and think will be popular.
However, he said, the province doesn’t seem to find the resources to do the “heavy lifting of the work that we all know is going to be the most important thing to get us through the pandemic, which is to fix the crisis in our health-care system right now, the crisis in our ICUs.”
He said the government’s top job should be to make health-care investments and come up with a plan to fix the situation in the province’s ICUs.
Kinew noted the province needs to continue to supply Manitobans with trusted information from trusted sources to encourage them to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'My family doctor just fired me': Ontario patients frustrated with de-rostering
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An apartment block collapses in a Russian border city after heavy shelling, injuring over a dozen
An apartment block partially collapsed in the Russian border city of Belgorod on Sunday, leaving at least 19 injured. Officials blamed Ukrainian shelling and said there were also likely deaths.
Michael Cohen: A challenging star witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial
He once said he would take a bullet for Donald Trump. Now Michael Cohen is prosecutors' biggest piece of legal ammunition in the former president's hush money trial.
Canada Post cracks down on Nunavut loophole to get free Amazon Prime shipping
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
Swiss fans get ready to welcome Eurovision winner Nemo back home
Swiss Eurovision fans were getting ready Sunday to give a hero's welcome to singer Nemo, who won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest with "The Code," an operatic pop-rap ode to the singer’s journey toward embracing a nongender identity.
Adopted daughter in the Netherlands reunited with sister in Montreal and mother in Colombia, 40 years later
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
'It was violent': Police tear down U of A pro-Palestinian encampment Saturday morning
Multiple people at the protest camp torn down at the University of Alberta campus Saturday say police's actions against protesters were "violent" and "disproportionate."
Millions of Canadians have been exposed to potentially toxic chemicals, and they're not going anywhere
For decades, North Bay, Ontario's water supply has harboured chemicals associated with liver and developmental issues, cancer and complications with pregnancy. It's far from the only city with that problem.
As Israel pushes deeper into Rafah, Hamas regroups elsewhere in ungoverned Gaza
Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup.