ICBC’S ‘MIRACLE’
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It may have been Carole James’s budget, but it was another cabinet minister who loomed large in its pages Tuesday: Attorney-General David Eby.
Or maybe we should nickname him The Miracle Worker, after James’s budget included an eye-popping commitment to finally extinguish his famous ICBC “dumpster fire” within one year.
According to budget documents, the public auto-insurer is set to lose a staggering $1.18 billion in the current fiscal year. That means ICBC is losing $3.2 million a day (or about $134,000 an hour or $2,245 a minute).
These stunning losses follow last year’s even-gaudier $1.3 billion loss at ICBC. The public auto-insurance monopoly is bleeding red ink like a stuck cash cow.
But now here comes Eby to perform his fiscal miracle. The budget plan says ICBC will nearly break even in fiscal 201920 — losing a piddly $50 million — and then return to full profitability the year after that.
Amazing! This has got to be the biggest firefighting feat since they extinguished the last burning embers in first-century Rome.
How will Eby snuff out the ICBC dumpster fire this year? Through a series a major reforms designed to dramatically
— and quickly — slash costs. Call it Eby’s triple whammy: A strict new cap on minor-injury payouts. Moving claims out of court and into “civil-resolution tribunals.” And new restrictions on the use of expert witnesses.
Eby announced the changes to expert reports two weeks ago, barring lawyers from hiring multiple expert witnesses to argue why their clients should be paid more money for injuries suffered in car crashes. The province’s
personal-injury lawyers are mad as hell about it, of course. But they ain’t seen nothing yet, because the other two reforms are going to whack them even harder.
Starting April 1, people who suffer “minor” injuries in crashes will be limited to a maximum payout of $5,500 for pain and suffering. The current average payout for these injuries is $30,000.
Also kicking in April 1 is the move to civil-resolution tribunals — or CRTs — which will
adjudicate minor-injury claims instead of courts. The tribunals currently hear small-claims disputes involving condo stratas.
The government says CRTs can settle minor auto-crash cases, often with no lawyers involved, in less than three months, instead of 2 1/2 years in the courts.
Now you know why the lawyers are advertising their services like crazy, urging anyone who gets even a hangnail in the smallest fender-bender
to call them immediately. The lawyers are desperate to get their clients’ legal claims rolling before the April 1 deadline. The number of cases launched has soared 30 per cent in just a few months, and advertising by personal-injury law firms is up 21 per cent.
Will these changes really erase more than $1 billion of ICBC losses in just a single year?
“I am cautiously optimistic,” James said Tuesday, while leaving
herself a lot of wiggle room, pointing to the budget’s $750-million contingency fund.
“There is more money, just in case,” she said.
Watch for all those angry lawyers to head to court this spring in a legal bid to try to stop Eby from performing his ICBC miracle.