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Manitoba Public Insurance reports profit despite requesting rate hike

Crashes during a bad winter driving season increased physical damage claims for Manitoba Public Insurance in the first fiscal quarter of 2014. Rudi Pawlychyn / Global News

WINNIPEG – Manitoba Public Insurance is making a profit but isn’t backing down on a request for an insurance rate hike.

The public automobile insurer on Monday reported a net income of $14.2 million in its first fiscal quarter for 2014, which ended May 31.

MPI has asked the Public Utilities Board to allow it to increase rates 3.4 per cent because of the number of crashes in a bad winter for drivers.

An eight per cent, or $9.6 million, increase in physical damage claims last winter was less than the drop in bodily injury claims, MPI said in a news release.

Bodily injury claims in the first quarter of 2014 dropped $35.7 million from 2013, the insurer said, which reduced claims costs for the period by $26.6 million.

However, volatile interest rates and a nearly depleted rate stabilization reserve, combined with the number of physical damage claims over the winter, have prompted MPI to remain cautious, the news release says.

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