Broken auto insurance system can be fixed

RE: Ontario captive to industry demands on insurance rates (June 12)

These refreshing pieces by Ken Rubin identify the main reason why Ontario’s auto insurance system is broken: policy-makers’ complete reliance on biased industry consultants whose profit-making interests contradict those of the public.

We write to express our mutual outrage and call upon the government to take action. Mr. Rubin clearly, rightly, and effectively identifies the fundamentally flawed nature of the provincial government’s relationship with the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

This approach has led to taxpayers’ dollars being used to hire consultants sympathetic to the insurance industry’s agenda of reducing available benefits to the injured. It has led to unreliable information, and has failed to significantly reduce mandatory auto insurance premiums. It has also led to unaudited information being used to justify legislation that erodes the rights and benefits of even the most catastrophically injured car accident victims.

Mr. Rubin explains that Ontario drivers now have the worst benefits system in almost 30 years, notwithstanding the inflated auto insurance premiums — a fact which is echoed in David Marshall’s recent report “Fair Benefits Fairly Delivered: A Review of the Auto Insurance System in Ontario.”

The Ontario Trial Lawyers Association has asked time and again to be a partner at the table to represent the perspective of injured victims, and to ensure that the public is adequately protected in the event of a car accident. We are here to offer solutions to problems that personal injury lawyers and their injured clients see every day, in order to ensure the rights and needs of Ontarians are respected and protected. This broken system can only be fixed with creativity, ingenuity, and balanced input on behalf of both victims and insurers. Claire Wilkinson, president of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association