Ont. car insurance highest in nation

TORONTO — Ontario has the most expensive auto insurance premiums in Canada despite also having one of the lowest levels of accidents and fatalities, a report has found.

“While the number of automobile accidents in Ontario, especially very serious ones, have consistently come down, the cost of claims has consistently gone up. Ontario also has one of the least effective insurance systems in Canada,” said the report by David Marshall, Ontario’s auto insurance adviser.

The average auto insurance premium in Ontario is $1,458, which is almost 55 per cent higher than the average of all other Canadian jurisdictions, Marshall found. If Ontario’s premiums were closer to the Canadian average of about $930 it would save Ontario drivers almost 40 per cent — or about $4 billion a year, he wrote.

The problems in the system are structural, Marshall wrote, not excess insurance company profits or the behaviour of claimants or lawyers.

The government-commissioned report was quietly posted online last week to Ontario’s government news release site in a way that does not alert subscribers. A government spokeswoman said it was not issued as a news release because “there really was no news to announce.”

NDP deputy leader Jagmeet Singh said it looks like the government was trying to “bury” the report.