ICBC Review Suggests Rate Hike
Prince George, B.C. – An independent review of ICBC, called for by the previous government in the Province, has been completed and calls for change.
The report concludes there are significant pressures on auto insurance rates, including higher priced vehicles, a rapid acceleration in the number of crashes, the number of claims and the cost of those claims.
The 203 page report ( which can be read here) provides a number of possible options. While one of the suggestions is for a rate hike of nearly 30% over the next year and a half, ICBC says the “solutions are complex and require further analysis and discussion.”
Attorney General, and Minister in charge of ICBC , David Eby says that kind of rate hike is not acceptable to the new government, but they will consider recommendations made in the report that could reduce accidents, injuries, deaths and claim costs. Recent trends show the accident rate in B.C. is rising with a 23% increase in crashes between 2013 and 2016 and Eby says that is very concerning to him. He says he will be working closely with the Minister of Transportation and the Solicitor General “To make sure these roads are safe for everybody, and we reverse this trend of increasingly unsafe roads in our province.”
“However, I want to assure British Columbians that we are not considering photo radar or moving to a no-fault system for auto insurance,” said Eby.
He says solutions could include ensuring good drivers are rewarded, and bad drivers pay more “We will focus on finding answers that put the corporation back on stable financial footing, while maintaining our number one priority of making rates affordable,” adds Eby.
Comments
Stop handing out driver’s licences like they’re candy at Halloween. Make it much, much harder to get and to keep your licence.
Yesss
Also, more drivers, more accidents.. Ratio probably hasn’t increased. How many of them are drivers not born here? That switched licence from another country??
Our insurance keeps going up, no matter how old the vehicle is. I still pay premiums like my car is new… crazy… and yet no accidents
It’s pretty obvious what happened. Governments of every stripe required ICBC to pay them a dividend. Had they not done that, the cash for future claims would be there. So, we got lower taxes then, and we pay higher insurance premiums now.
Another option would be for government to increase taxes, and stroke ICBC a cheque to repay all those dividends.
Since insurance is really part taxation now, it’s regressive taxation. Whether you’re a wealthy person driving a Denali, or working at Wal Mart driving a beater, you pay the same for basic coverage, from which the government has been taking a dividend, rather than raising taxes.
And maybe we should use technology to enforce traffic laws. It’s clear the flesh and blood police can’t do it anymore. You could stick a retired cop in a Prius with a dash cam and he’d probably record enough footage to issue enough tickets to bail ICBC out. As long as he’s got the plate and the infraction, he can ticket the owner – just can’t issue points – but better than nothing.
What you described is entrapment. Can’t be done.
entrapment is when the police trick you into committing a crime. what I suggested is them observing you commit a traffic offense and issue a ticket.
Where in the world do you get entrapment out of his post?
What is entrapment??
Entrapment occurs when someone is induced to commit a criminal offence as a result of unfair law enforcement practices such as trickery, persuasion or fraud.
Hiding in a Prius and catching speeders could be construed as entrapment, as your are certainly using trickery.
Problem is the entrapment laws are complex so in fact they might be able to get away with it by claiming it is a Ghost Car.
You could be induced to speed in an area where there is no traffic and only a Prius parked on the side of the road, while if there was a police car parked on the side of the road you would not.
Seems to me that years ago the police were found guilty of entrapment when they parked a pick up truck with a boat on top, on the side of the road, and caught speeders.
So maybe entrapment, and maybe not.
Anyone not able to recover from a skid every time should not be on the road.
Yea, needs a change all right! Get rid of the heavily laden executives and go back to private!
Was that part of the report? Shoulda bin!
Poor drivers paying more? Isn’t there a Charter argument there? No?
Then why have we waited so long? Get with the program Eby, sock it to ’em!
Maybe if the money collected for ICBC fees stayed with ICBC instead of being funneled into the general coffers, they would have money and not have to raise fees every year but no instead it goes into general revenue, another of governments rip offs of BC’ers..
Drivers at fault need to be held accountable and ICBC needs to stay out of my wallet.
So very true!
All Governments and Government entities have 122,000 excuses why they cannot do the right thing and keep costs and expenditures in line.
We know that they continue to BS us over the years, however we sit on our duff’s and do nothing about it. Good old Canadians. If you kick him in the left butt, he leans to the left so that the second kick will be on the right cheek, and he can maintain balance.
In fact we are a big joke around the world about how nice we are, and how we apologize for everything. We should be manufacturing **excuse me** tee shirts for Canadian travelers .
If you look at ICBC 2015 Year end report you will see that they have in excess of 13 Billion in investments. Mostly in Federal, Provincial, and Municipal Bonds. In addition they paid the BC Government $138 Million in dividends.
Sooooo. Why would a company who has $13 Billion in investments have to be looking at a 30% increase in rates to keep operating.
Great point. Why ?
I think the idea can be summed up as “protect your capital and live off your income.” The premiums we pay are the insurer’s income, plus whatever is earned through investment on the past and present portion not paid out in claims. Insurance companies are all governed by actuaries. They make generally quite safe (for the insurer) projections of risk, and how it is to be shared (how much the premiums have to increase). For the whole concept of insurance, like banking, involves the pooling and sharing of risk. Insurance companies need to have a high percentage of their assets in a fairly liquid form, for example, government bonds ~ things that can be turned into cash relatively quickly, either through sale or as collateral they could borrow against. In both the US and Canada insurance companies are major holders of private timberlands. The risk is reasonably low relative to the rate of growth in selected areas. Something like 13% a year, on average in those areas, I believe, just from tree growth alone.
Clark took 900 million from icbc a few years ago to put into general revenue to doctor the numbers.. and ever since then icbc has been talking about raising fees…but they blame the motorists..of course they do..
Wonder is the NDP greenie thing will stop the dividends. Har har de har. Most likely will increase them.
And your thoughts on Clark taking the money… which really happened.. not your visions of the future..
A bit of slight of hand on your part. 900 million not in one year but over a period of years. It was set up by the NDP as they thought a crown corporation should give back to the people of the province in terms of a dividend to government. Dividends are a percentage of profit, there hasn’t been a year that ICBC has not turned a profit. Maybe the NDP can cut us all checks for a hundred bucks to “buy” our votes again
Doctor the numbers. How about keeping our taxes down?
Get over it,the money didn’t go to her, it came back to us.
Keeping our taxes down by using icbc money for it… then increase insurance rates to cover the money taken.. how did this money come back to us with increasing icbc rates
Wow..
The NDP created the scheme, the Liberals (with a surplus) vowed to eliminate it but with the NDP about to run deficits again I doubt you will see its removal – probably a revamp so when profits are high they are capped.
ICBC needs a good shake up… Also they need to rid of their lawyers always fighting claims and that costs more than paying out the claims
Unfortunately, that makes money for the other bottom feeders defending clients.
Maybe ICBC should get rid of having someone on every corner selling auto insurance. Go south to Arizona and you can buy your plates and insurance online. As it is private insurance the plates and insurance are separate purchases but the upside is you can purchase plates for 2 years at a discount.
About time we stopped feeding the coffers of the store corner insurance companies and modernized the method of purchasing insurance much the same as has been done in banking and internet purchases.
Everyone and their dog printing off expiry stickers, that would go over well
They reduced the size of the expiry sticker and save a few million a year in printing costs
The Libs planed a 42% price hike well before the election. Here is the link.
http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/icbc-admits-42-per-cent-in-rate-hikes-possible-for-basic-auto-insurance
I dented my fender and ICBC paid the shop 4,600.00 to repair it – I paid my 300 bucks. Parts are super expensive, there was a crack in the light bezel but it is a one piece unit with the grille so that part alone was 900.00 for factory but they made the autobody shop buy a jobber which had to be replaced after 8 months due to bubbling of the finish to save 100.00. Same with the bumper – Chrome started to rust after one winter so they had to replace it, see what happens this winter. Sometimes cheaper parts are not better.
Paint hours are huge as well on a vehicle. Someone dinged my box side and their insurance (which is ICBC as well) had to fork over 2,200.00 to repair. Those two repairs alone are worth more than the 2003 truck is on a lot – they should have just bought me a second hand truck
All the Agents make easy Money, get it online would be the only way to go.
No. Smartphone use a Phone,. We can do without Sign herd and initial here over and over again! All the speeding big Trucks, take them off the road, I may keep my Windshield longer less Cost to us and Icbc
It’s amazing that in Alberta private insurers can charge less and still make a profit for their shareholders.
Most of Alberta is composed of considerably different terrain than most of BC. Long stretches of straight roads through relatively flat prairie. Contrast that with our geography ~ lot of mountains, curving roads, etc.
So you’re saying that people in BC are worse drivers and aren’t driving to the conditions? I’ve been driving in BC for 29 years and can’t recall a time when the terrain put me in a situation where I might be in an accident.
Alberta has separate insurance and registration. You pay two fees there, ICBC is our MOT for plates and annual reggie and those fees are in the insurance rate.
Turn it into a ‘mutual’ insurance company owned directly by the policy holders. Without the government acting as the dividend receiving trustee. That way if ICBC makes a profit over and above its projected payouts as established actuarially, (and actuaries are pretty good at projecting risks to ensure that there’ll be a profit for the insurer), any dividends declared are returned to the actual owners ~ we who paid those premiums.
Good point. I agree. I think that is what the public thought they. were getting originally before it became the cash cow political parties found it to be.
I just think ICBC does 30% here and 30% there, and eventually it invites people to flaunt the law. Why can’t they do a separate actuarial account for newer vehicles and the high priced class… and then separate out the under $10,000 asset value class that just needs a basic permit to operate a vehicle to and from work with a clean accident free driving record. Leave alone the working class and don’t use ICBC rates as a form of road toll, which we all know is the end goal for the elites in Vancouver. Separate the actuaries and let the market set the rates.
I don’t think someone driving an older vehicle accident free should have to pay rates to subsidize high priced vehicle claims and accident prone drivers. I think the real motivation of the rich and connected in Vancouver is to road toll traffic out of the Vancouver core and are just plain ignorant of how this impacts the rest of the province. They are looking at ICBC as a policy tool with a parochial vision to a LMD traffic problem and we will pay for this through higher insurance rates trying in vain to make sense of it all.
NDP and greenies will need those dividends and more and will suck more out of Hydro ignoring the 65 billion already being vacuumed out of pockets paying for the IPP scam lining a lot of pockets. Bend over folks.
Seems Trump is doing alright for his country, read this.
Also related wonder how long the NDP greenies lovein will last while the rest of the worlds economy steams right along. the US will not need the oil and gas we sell except for more a bargain basement price they already force.
Blocking gas and oil shipments while the rest of the world is clamoring for it very idiotic and people knock Trump!
ht tps://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/07/24/the-resurgence-of-the-american-coal-industry-part-trois-going-dutch/
horgon Weaver you guys are way out of your league along with the selfie king.
I had a back ender. ICBC estimated the cost of repair at $1800.00. I took my car to have repairs made. The final cost was $3200.00. So who is ripping ICBC off. I think its a cash cow for repair shops Those great free enterprise believer’s.
Cheers
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