Manitoba parents face long waits for birth certificates

For Jessica Audy, it took an eternity for proof of her child’s birth to finally arrive.

“The wait was frustrating, hence the many, many calls they received from me,” said Audy.

After an unsuccessful attempt to apply for her daughter’s birth certificate by mail in January 2020, Audy reapplied online near the end of 2020.

After months of waiting and multiple phone calls to Manitoba’s Vital Statistics Branch, there was still no birth certificate through 2021.

“Most of the times that I called in it would either say there were just too many people in queue and it would kick me off queue after I’d been waiting like 45 minutes,” said Audy. “Or I would get an answering machine and there wouldn’t be anybody there.”

Over the course of the pandemic, the branch has faced a backlog for registrations and issuing birth, death, and marriage certificates.

According to Vital Statistics, birth certificates can be needed to access provincial or federal programs, or to apply for a passport, health card, or social insurance number.

Audy said a deadline for health coverage under her husband came and went while they waited.

“That deadline was very stressful and it did loom very heavy,” said Audy.

Other parents said they have faced similar waits and experiences trying to contact the branch.

The province said as of October 2021, 99.99 per cent of the backlog for certificates to be processed between August 2020 and March 2021 was eliminated.

In a statement, it said more staff has been hired and thousands more certificates were issued last year compared to 2020.

“From January 2020 to December 2020 Vital Statistics issued 33,892 birth certificates, 6,952 marriage certificates and 7,327 death certificates. From January 2021 to December 2021 Vital Statistics issued 50,284 birth certificates, 10,717 marriage certificates and 10,959 death certificates,” reads the statement.

According to the Vital Statistics website, the average weekly turnaround times in December and January were in the single digit range:

Date 2021-12-20 to 2021-12-26	Weeks 5.9
2021-12-27 to 2022-01-02	3.5
2022-01-03 to 2022-01-09	4.6
2022-01-10 to 2022-01-16	3.8
2022-01-17 to 2022-01-23	7.2
2022-01-24 to 2022-01-30	3.4

 

Jessica Audy said the birth certificate finally came in January. Her daughter is now two-years-old. She has another child on the way and hopes there is no repeat.

“Especially with a second pandemic baby on the way it is definitely a concern,” said Audy.

The cost for a certificate is $30 and a rushed certificate costs $65. The branch’s website said the rushed service to process applications is three business days.