Quebec’s new healthcare fee, which starts at $25 a year, came into effect last Thursday, July 1. The flat fee was announced as part of the provincial budget tabled in March and will be calculated when taxpayers file their income tax returns next spring. It will apply to all Quebecers over 18 years of age. Quebec’s Finance Minister, Raymond Bachand, said the cost of health care is ballooning so fast he had no choice but to seek new funding. However, he also said more than a million people in the province on very low incomes won’t have to pay the annual healthcare tax. (CBC)