Tories slam ‘empty’ vow to cut car insurance rates
The Liberal promise to reduce auto insurance premiums by15 per cent is little more than “bumper-sticker politics,” Tory Leader Tim Hudak says.
Thursday’s provincial budget calls for an average reduction of $225 within about a year of the budget being passed.
“I think people are tired of this bumper sticker politics where you throw a number out there with no plan whatsoever to get to that,” Hudak said on Thursday. “I think men and women of our province are going to see through that empty commitment.”
Ontario motorists pay the highest premiums in Canada, especially in the Greater Toronto Area, which is plagued by auto insurance fraud.
“The cost is hard on people’s wallets but it also presents a drag on our economy,” Finance Minister Charles Sousa told a news conference. “We are targeting a 15-per-cent cut on average to auto insurance rates to help people with their cost of living and ease expenses.”
The budget provision is a major sop to the New Democrats, who insisted an insurance premium cut, among other things, was a condition of NDP support for the first budget of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government. But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath wasn’t entirely onside because of the vague timeline and whether the savings are achievable.
“This is one of the concerns we have. We see our proposals reflected but what we don’t see are any accountability measures . . . we don’t see any reference to how much and how much time it’s going to take,” Horwath said.
Insiders say the Liberals are finding it is one thing to say auto insurance rates should be cut and an entirely different thing to do it.
A large part of the reduction initiative will depend on the government’s ability to tackle fraud in the system, ranging from shady tow-truck drivers and body shops to the health clinics that have popped up in strip malls across the GTA.