Manitoba parents forced to wait months for birth certificates

Jerret Unrau became a father for the first time on July 29, 2021.

What he didn’t know was that it was going to take up to 10 months for his daughter’s birth certificate to arrive.

“Our daughter was born end of July, we filled out the form at the hospital. At the hospital they say wait two weeks before you go online and fill out the request form,” said Unrau. “We were just kind of frustrated at that point.”

Unrau is not alone with his feelings of frustration. Others have taken to Reddit wondering why the wait times for birth certificates are so long.

One user wrote they are not able to get drug coverage for their baby through work until they’re able to provide a birth certificate.

“It didn’t seem like it needed two months every time I touch base with them about it,” said Unrau.

In Manitoba, the Vital Statistics Branch is responsible for registering vital events such as birth, death and marriage.

According to its website, the average weekly turnaround time from Sept. 26 to Nov. 6 was around two weeks. The website hasn’t updated its numbers since Nov. 6.

“It doesn’t really seem like the call centre has any kind of insight or access that can really tell you anything about where your application is at.”

Unrau says that he was frustrated with the lack of communication with Vital Statistics, which is when he decided to reach out for help.

“At that point, I just decided to email my MLA,” he explained.

Unrau says he finally got his daughter’s birth certificate last June shortly after contacting his MLA.

“Seems like you would have to somehow escalate it to someone who could actually do things for you.”

CityNews reached out to the Vital Statistics Branch for a comment, but they did not immediately respond.