The Manitoba health region with the most tickets for breaking health orders

B.C. is in a new and complex phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, one in which transmission of the virus is primarily in private settings where public health measures are difficult to enforce. In this phase, health officials’ “soft-hands” approach – prioritizing education over enforcement – appears to have little impact.

Manitoba enforcement officials handed 23 tickets to individuals for breaking public health orders last week, with all but four being handed out in one region of the province.

On Wednesday, the Manitoba government released its enforcement update for Dec. 13 to 19, which shows it handed out one ticket for $1,296 to a person defying public health restrictions, as well as 22 tickets for $298 to people for not wearing masks in indoor public spaces.

This comes to a total of $7,852 in fines.

The province notes that 19 of the 23 tickets -- 82 per cent – were handed out in the Southern Health Region. Enforcement officials handed out two tickets in both Winnipeg and the Prairie Mountain Health Regions, while no tickets were issued in the Interlake-Eastern Health Region or the Northern Health Region.

Since the province began its enforcement efforts in April 2020, it has handed out 2,391 tickets, coming to a total of more than $3 million in fines.