CALGARY — Alberta is planning to ditch its long-maligned paper health cards with a new app it has dubbed the “Alberta Wallet.”

Holding her own crumpled health card from behind a podium, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Friday the app would allow people to access their health card from their phone.

“We’ve been trying to get rid of these things,” Smith told a news conference in Calgary as she toyed with the small, rectangular card.

She said her own card was dog-eared on both sides and the plastic cover had broken.

The announcement answers the public’s long-standing calls for the government to do away with the flimsy, easily damaged paper health cards. Manitoba rolled out plastic cards in January, after years of paper cards.

The move left Alberta as the only province still using paper

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