The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is disappointed but not surprised by the BC Utilities Commissions decision to up ICBC’s basic auto insurance rates by six percent.
The change is slated for April 1st and comes before the restructuring of rates in September.
While there is little shock among the CTF, BC Director Kris Sims there was one noticeable omission they found to be a little odd.
“As far as we can see, we haven’t see the optional insurance rate increase of decrease – we haven’t had an announcement on that which is causing some concern because usually, they would announce the basic and the optional at the same time.”
“It could be that it is going down but you would think they would want to trumpet at that but maybe it is staying the same, maybe they are calculating it in a different way – it’s odd. It is odd to see they are not announcing the optional rate and we’re trying to find that out.”
Sims also feels for the drivers who are of the opinion they are being unfairly punished.
“I just feel really bad for the rate payer’s which is pretty much everyone with a car in BC. Your rates are going up and you have no choice about it because the government told you how much your rates are going up by. I also want to point out that drivers in other provinces don’t need to put up with this.”
According to Sims, 80% of BC drivers currently qualify for the 40% discount rate, even the province has the highest rates in all of Canada.
“What’s interesting about what Minister Eby said when he made that structural change announcement about ICBC is those good drivers would pay less than they otherwise would have been, that is a big catch. This means their rates aren’t necessarily going down if you’re a good driver they are just not going to go up as they otherwise would have been.”
Drivers in Prince George and across Northern BC pay roughly $1,700 a year.