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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Manitoba ID cards $1,700 each: Tories

By: Larry Kusch

Posted: 11/24/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

MANITOBA will forge ahead with a plan to introduce an enhanced driver's licence in the new year, despite opposition criticism that the move to enhanced identification was poorly planned and a waste of money.

Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen said Monday that few Manitobans have bothered to buy the enhanced ID card, introduced this year, at a cost to Manitoba Public Insurance of $14 million.

The card, which can be purchased for $50, is cheaper than a passport and acceptable as identification at the U.S. border. However, only 8,000 have been issued in Manitoba, the Tories say.

"That is a cost of more than $1,700 per card issued, which is absolutely outrageous..." McFadyen said, adding the government should have done its homework.

While he said the government should honour the cards already issued, he demanded the program be scrapped and Manitoba abandon plans to issue an enhanced driver's licence.

However, Andrew Swan, minister responsible for MPI, said the government won't do that. "To do anything other than to continue the program would actually be a major waste of money and would also be a disservice to Manitobans who see this as an alternative (to buying a passport)," Swan said.

While there were start-up costs, he said, future expenses will be covered by the fees charged for the cards.

The U.S. government brought in stringent identification requirements for people wishing to travel to America after the 9/11 attacks.

At first, the United States was going to require all Canadians travelling south of the border to carry a passport, but later agreed to the cheaper identification card.

Swan said the ID card is important to cross-border travel.

Manitoba will begin to offer an enhanced ID driver's licence early in the new year that will allow residents to cross the U.S. border without having a passport.

Also in the new year, the province will move to a one-piece driver's licence that will be renewed every five years.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 24, 2009 A4

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