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Get the facts

Private car insurance lobbyists admit "choice" actually refers to coverage. Less coverage makes rates seem lower but, in reality, underinsured drivers puts all of us at risk when we share the roads. Read more…
The financial picture at ICBC is improving, the number of people hiring personal injury lawyers has dropped significantly, and motorists in a crash are successfully accessing a host of improved medical benefits. Read more…
Retired BC senior civil servant Richard McCandless' commentary shows further flaws with the General Insurance Statistical Agency's methodology. Read more…
Right now in Ontario, the private car insurance industry, backed by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, is fighting for the right to continue letting private insurers cancel people's insurance policies at any time without having to give notice. Read more…
IBABC Executive Director Chuck Byrne shares his expert knowledge of BC's auto insurance industry and points out what the private insurance lobbyists don't want people to know. Read more…
To simplify the public policy problem of ensuring adequate auto insurance coverage at the lowest possible price to a question of competition versus monopoly is deceptively facile, writes retired senior BC government public servant Richard McCandless. Read more…
Rates are up across Ontario, Alberta and Atlantic Canada (all private insurance jursidictions) in the second quarter of 2019, with drivers in Alberta seeing the steepest increase in the country. Read more…
ICBC is continually looking for ways to make car insurance better in B.C. In April 2019, it increased its Accident Benefits. Johnston Meier Insurance Agencies Group outlines the changes that are coming on September 1, 2019. Read more…
The private auto insurer was fined for charging automobile insurance rates other than those authorized by the Ontario government. Read more…
The problems in Alberta's auto insurance marketplace are two-fold. Not only are brokers unable to find coverage for certain risks, but those clients who do purchase auto insurance can have difficulties making payments on their premiums. Read more…
Through Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), Saskatchewan residents now enjoy, on average, the lowest overall personal vehicle insurance rates in Canada. Read more…
On the question of whether auto insurance should remain public, 47.1 per cent of respondents agreed, while 13.7 per cent thought it should be privatized. Read more...
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is misleading British Columbians about the benefits of an Alberta-style model. Read more…
Joshi claims she was fired last year after confronting her managers over a plan to stop selling insurance to drivers who live in Brampton, which has some of the highest premiums in Ontario. She argued the plan was a thinly veiled attempt to deny auto insurance to the city’s largest visible-minority population. Read more…
This doesn’t mean Alberta drivers won’t get insurance, but they may not get renewed automatically, be allowed to pay in installments or be covered for what’s considered optional coverage. Read more…
In Hamilton and across much of Ontario, auto insurance rates continue to rise despite the provincial government’s intent to revamp the system and lower costs for drivers. Read more…
Of all the provinces in Canada, Alberta drivers saw the steepest rise in their auto insurance over the last year, with Ontario and Atlantic Canada not far behind. Read more…
An Ontario couple saw their home and auto insurance premiums increase to the tune of hundreds of dollars per year because of a change in their address – even though they didn’t move. Read more…
If ICBC was privatized there would be a number of private insurance companies that would work together, just like the gasoline companies, to increase the price of the insurance industry for the betterment of the insurance industry, and not the consumer. Read more…
Insurance companies have been struggling with profitability of late because of government price caps in two of the largest private insurance markets in Canada: Ontario and Alberta. These caps limit the amount insurers can raise auto insurance rates, hurting their profit and leading them to exit certain markets. Read more…
Scam artists are taking advantage of people hunting for cheaper deals in Ontario's expensive private auto insurance market by selling them fake insurance. Read more…
Substantial rate hikes happening in New Brunswick's private auto insurance market. Read more…
According to an analysis by the Saskatchewan government, Vancouver had premiums at $1,966 in 2018. Saskatchewan pegs premiums in Toronto at $4,669. Read more…
An Ontario woman is taking one of the province’s biggest insurance providers to court, alleging she was fired for pushing back on the company’s “discriminatory” effort to stop selling plans to drivers who live in Brampton. Read more…
A major Canadian insurance company direct-debited a Toronto-area widow for 16 months even though she cancelled her policy and sold the vehicle when her husband died. Read more…
Approximately 40 percent of people seeking coverage from Surex are determined to be too high of a risk and are ultimately denied coverage. Read more…
Alberta’s introduction of a cap on the cost of liability -only vehicle insurance has insurance companies mitigating their financial risk by increasing other rates and pricing some drivers out of coverage. Read more…
A total of 11 Ontario auto insurers have now been named in proposed class-action lawsuits alleging they short-changed accident victims by ignoring rules surrounding the payment of sales tax. Read more…
A commentary by retired senior B.C. government civil servant Richard McCandless demonstrates the flaws in using GISA General Insurance Statistical Agency (GISA) data which is often cited by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). Read more…
On Ontario, insurance companies are allowed to set your rates based on your age, gender, marital status, driving record, the kind of vehicle you drive, where you live, your annual mileage and whether you’re using your car for business and pleasure. Read more…
Saskatchewan is one of three provinces in Canada where drivers are required to buy auto insurance from a public company. Read more…
It started when an insurance company gave David a quote – roughly $4,500 a year, if he bought the Chevy. He asked the insurer what his costs would be if he were a woman. He was told his annual bill would sink to roughly $3,400 – a $1,100 difference. Read more…
A public insurance model that ensures all drivers have the most basic level of insurance protects anyone who is in a crash. In other places, you can see as many as one in five cars driving uninsured. Here in B.C., it’s one per cent. Read more…
A report by a York University professor found the average person in Ontario has been overpaying on car insurance by $143 every year. Read more…
Despite Toronto man’s clean driving record, a new postal code causes his premium to spike. Read more…
British Columbia’s mandatory coverage includes third party liability, accident benefits, uninsured automobile protection, hit and run, and inverse liability protection. Alberta’s mandatory coverage includes only third party liability and accident benefits. Read more…
Eby accused the Liberals of siphoning a billion dollars out of the insurance corporation. He also claimed they removed pages from a consultant’s report that would have revealed the extent of the problem, and said the previous government’s actions appeared to have been made out of political considerations rather than public interest. Read more…
The BC Liberals ignored recommendations designed to put ICBC on a more stable financial footing and removed them from a report to the public in 2015. Read more…
Discrediting the methodology used by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in their comparison of insurance rates across Canada. Read more…
Automobile prices charged in BC are in line with those of Manitoba. A driver in Vancouver pays significantly less than an otherwise comparable driver in Toronto. Read more…
Ontario consumers may have overpaid for auto insurance by $3 billion to $4 billion between 2001 and 2013, according to a study done for the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association. Read more…
The survey encompassed 34 different driver/vehicle combinations. Driver profiles included the driving records and driver history and the related discounts and penalties. Read more…
The Consumers Association of Canada deems private auto insurance to be one of the biggest rip-offs that Canadians face. Read more…
The money, accumulated as profit on the sale of optional auto insurance, rightly belonged to ICBC ratepayers. Give it back? The Liberals instead decided to keep it for their own purposes. Read more…
A 2003 study by the Consumers Association of Canada compared insurance costs for drivers with the same profile (including age, accident record and vehicle type) in 40 cities across Canada. It found that motorists in public-insurance provinces paid less. Read more…
Allowing private firms to compete with ICBC in the provision of basic auto insurance will almost certainly result in a number of negative outcomes: discriminatory rate setting; higher insurance premiums for hundreds of thousands of British Columbians; job loss; diminished investments in road safety and higher costs for the public treasury. Read more…

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