Editor:
People seem hardly to have noticed that ICBC has instituted a number of changes that not only greatly degrade the sort of automobile coverage that has been customary across Canada, but will also cost considerably more money for each car owner in B.C. Before Sept. 1, if you lent your car to someone, that person was covered by your insurance as long as they were “within the policy.” “Within the policy” meant primarily, unimpaired, properly licensed, and not using the car for an unlawful purpose.
As of Sept. 1, you are required to list all those who may regularly drive your vehicle, supply their licensing information and driving records, and to purchase extra insurance for those who may “occasionally” use it, such as a neighbour or friend to whom you might wish to lend it. The net effect will be increased premiums for everybody, as ICBC finds ways to use the information provided to justify extra charges.
This significant deterioration of coverage is terrible public policy, and can only end up complicating the administration of automobile insurance in ways that will cause even more price hikes, and will likely lead to litigation of situations where the coverage of the driver may seem ambiguous.
Now I see that Keith Baldrey, in his Sept. 20 discussion of the state of B.C.’s finances (“B.C.’s finance minister is facing her toughest year yet”), points out that the government believes that ICBC will not only wipe out its $1.18-billion deficit this year, but will also be able to provide $230 million to government coffers – a ransacking of the Insurance Corporation that the NDP decried only a few years ago when it was done by the Liberals!
Can you begin to guess where all that money is going to come from? Think higher premiums, extra charges for every driver, and new ways to take money out of your pocket.
I don’t object to taxes, and I agree with many of the NDP’s policies, but it’s time that government kept its hands off the insurance business, and let ICBC do what it is supposed to do: collect premiums according to the need to cover losses, lower premiums when a reduction in losses occurs, and cover everybody driving in B.C. at reasonable cost. The new changes that were instituted earlier this month seem pretty clearly to be a result of successive governments dipping their hands into the ICBC treasury. That needs to stop, and ICBC needs to revert to the more workable, less costly model that has prevailed for many years across the country.
Don Halward, Davis Bay
