What a silly game they play.. Now ICBC will only get a small raise and the fiberals will take full advantage of it saying how much they have saved us..what a croc..

“no new taxes” right Shirley, Mike?

Yep PVal. It’s the old I was going to hit you in the face with a bat, but look, I only punched you in the nose – what a nice guy I am.

Uh, you could’ve not hit me at all??

Get rid of ICBC and go private for both basic and extended coverage. ICBC is a RIP OFF!

The ICBC concept is good. The ICBC executive, and the BC Government is bad.

I agree with the above. Propose a 6.7% increase, Government says No. No. Then they agree on a 3.5 or 4% increase and the Government takes credit for being a **tough** good guy.

Maybe Stone and some others would discuss the amount of money transferred to the BC Government over the years from ICBC, and also why its necessary to have 13 Billion in investments. Perhaps we should sell off 1 Billion in investments to keep the rates where they are or lower them.

A lot of lower income people cannot keep paying these increases to these Government entities, to the Government, Municipalities, Regional Districts, etc;

Time for these Civil Servants to Back Off.

If the money that is paid to ICBC for insurance stayed with ICBC instead of going into the government’s coffers things would be fine.
The government has used ICBC funds for other things for a long time, though they won’t admit to it, and then ICBC claims they are short of funds.
Gee I wonder why?

@ bcracer …. you hit the nail on the head. The government regularly takes whatever surpluses ICBC has and puts it into general revenue to balance their budgets. It’s the same as the federal government using the IE premiums we pay to balance their budgets. That’s why they’re going to get the Ministry of Finance to work with ICBC on this issue; to put some of the money they took from our ICBC premiums back into ICBC’S coffers. If they’d quit taking the surpluses ( and there were many in past years) and leave it with ICBC, then when ICBC has a tough year with higher costs, they could use their surpluses rather that milking us for more money. Wage increases are just not keeping up with all the additional costs; we have less money to put back into the economy.

Seems like nobody is concerned about the $13 billion in investments. How can anyone be short of revenue if they have $13 billion in investments???

Yah, yah, it’s all the governments fault. Will you folks wake up?
The Unions do the same darn thing, they ask for 7% and they get 3%, same with government branches, they ask for a 7% increase in budget, they might get 4. That’s life.

Investments increased from $11 billion in 2010 to $13 Billion in 2013.

If I am reading their annual report correctly here are the transfers to the BC Government from 2010 to 2014.

2010 $576 Million
2011 $101 M
2012 ——
2013 $237 Million
2014 $252 Million

Total $1,166 Million.

Projected transfers.

2015 $185 Million
2016 $205 Million.

So there you have it. Lots of money at ICBC, just not lots of money to keep the rates down.

They take BC Hydro’s too. That’s why our rates go up. Another form of taxation by the Liberal government.

On the Vancouver Sun’s Public Sector Salary Database by my count there were 38 people working for ICBC (in the year 2013) who made over $200 K.

(Remove the space between http and : and put into your computer’s address bar)

http ://www.vancouversun.com/business/public-sector-salaries/basic.html

I have to hand it to the B.C. government for releasing this information so that the taxpayers in this province can get to see what its highest paid public sector workers are making.

I find it very disappointing there is no federal public sector worker “sunshine list” so that the taxpayers of Canada can get to see what the highest paid public sector workers who work for them are making.

March 27, 2015 – “Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives — like their Liberal predecessors — have blocked attempts at a similar federal list of six-figure earners.”

Ontario’s ‘sunshine list’ tops 100,000 members for first time

(Remove the space between http and : and put into your computer’s address bar)

http ://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2015/03/27/ontarios-sunshine-list-tops-100000-members-for-first-time.html

This is what I don’t get. We in BC have two admirable utilities, ICBC and BC Hydro. The idea is to collectively finance some things that we all need… electric power, and driving liability insurance. Both turn out to be raving successes. In the interest of the greater good, it makes sense that success should lead to lower power rates, lower driving premiums. Instead, the BC government (all parties) see the success of the utilities, and pull the excess into general revenue. Then ask us for increased power and insurance rates. And we put up with it.

The increase is wanted because of rapid claims. I would bet my life its because of distracted drivers on cell phones. make them pay , not the rest of us.

Agree totally with Palpou, this is a monopoly and if that’s the way it is, then no money should be siphoned off to general revenue. These increases have to stop on all levels of government. 6.7% in a recession when inflation is negligible. Piss off and fix this crap. Liberal or dipper, both have used this monopoly essential service to fund non insurance items. This must stop now. Dicks!!!!

I would like to see the payout for rear end claims cut in half. Those are the ones making all the false claims IMO. I see it all the time on the highway guys that cut out right in front and then hammer on the brakes…..

So, when ICBC keeps all of their money and reduces our premiums guess what happens???
Do you think you get to keep those savings?
That $200M hole in the budget has to come from somewhere and there really is only one source regardless of how you slice and dice it!
You and I the tax payer will simply pay more out of one hand so that we can say that we saved money with the other!
As for the $13Billion investment portfolio. The returns on these investments actually help to keep our premiums down, and if you know anything about insurance companies and their reserve requirements you would understand why ICBC has such a large investment portfolio.

Nhawk, Icbc should be a stand alone entity. It was not created to generate funds to general provincial revenue. If the province is short of cash, raise taxes for all. This is an insurance company first and foremost. Your logic amplifies the argument for private insurance. I know if I lived in Alberta I would be paying a ton less than I am now.

Icbc is full of SH**. Does this government think we are stupid?

Let’s call it what it is. A tax on everyone who has a vehicle. While Victoria trumpets its tax cutting prowess, it gathers revenue from Hydro rates, user fees and ICBC insurance premiums. How dumb do they think voters are? Let me rephrase that, how dumb are the voters?