NDP rules out photo radar, no-fault policy
Ernst and Young report says average driver could face 30 per cent rate hike by 2019
The NDP government has rejected the idea of establishing no-fault insurance or bringing back photo radar to deal with the “grave financial crisis” at ICBC, Attorney General David Eby said Monday.
Eby said the government intends to fix the problems without taking away people’s right to sue or reviving the photo radar program set up by a previous NDP government in the 1990s.
“If we’ve heard one message from British Columbians, it’s that they don’t agree with the idea of photo radar,” Eby said. “They find it unfair and an old technology and one that makes them question the administration of justice generally in the province.”
He made the comments following the release of a 203-page report by accounting firm Ernst and Young that says the average driver could face a 30 per cent increase in rates by 2019 if trends continue and nothing is done to reform the system.
The review, commissioned by the former Liberal government, paints a dismal picture of ICBC and outlines “significant structural problems.”
The report found that despite collecting higher premiums than other provinces, the Crown corporation still doesn’t have enough to cover the cost of claims. If not addressed, the gap between the premiums collected and the claim costs is projected to increase to $1.1 billion annually by 2019.
Eby blamed the problems, in part, on a 23 per cent spike in accidents since 2013 and the fact the former Liberal government was taking money out of ICBC in the form of dividends that the corporation was unable to sustain.
“A 30 per cent rate increase is not something that will be tolerated by this government, so we will address this issue,” Eby said.
He said the report shows that the existing system fails to sufficiently reward good drivers and punish the bad ones.
“That seems like an incredibly obvious opportunity for us to begin addressing some of the sustainability issues that ICBC faces,” he said. “Good drivers should be rewarded and bad drivers should have to bear more of the costs of their activities that drive up costs for everybody else.”
Eby also pointed to the report’s finding that many people involved in accidents feel compelled to hire a lawyer to regain lost wages or get access to medical care. He suggested the government could tackle that issue by shifting the philosophy at ICBC to make it more responsive to people’s needs, rather than moving to a no-fault system that restricts people’s ability to sue. “Our goal will be to make sure that people don’t need to hire lawyers as often as they have,” he said.
Vancouver-Quilchena Liberal MLA Andrew Wilkinson, a former attorney general, said Eby’s response was “vacuous” and failed to deliver a plan. “It’s unfortunate because the new NDP government has gladly told us what they will not do,” he said. “And they have failed to tell us what they will do with ICBC.”
He said pointing the finger at the Liberals is misplaced blame, when ICBC’s rising costs have been associated with shifts such as more expensive technology and vehicles, and the changing nature of claims. Wilkinson did not say how the Liberals would respond to the report, if still in power.
The Liberals would have to see what the NDP propose, “because it’s their job to govern and our job to critique,” he said.
“They have to digest the report and come up with positive results. Unfortunately, we’ve seen no indication of that whatsoever today. They have had access to the report for a week and if the best they can say is what they will not be doing, that’s not a good forward-looking sign.”