The BC NDP were campaigning in Richmond on Thursday morning and made an announcement targeted at drivers in the province.
Leader David Eby announced that they will freeze basic car insurance rates through the Insurance Bureau of British Columbia for three years.
This comes after Eby and interim BC Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson traded barbs about the future of the no-fault insurance model, which was introduced by the BC NDP in 2021.
Details of a letter penned by Doerkson to trial lawyers became public on Tuesday through the MoveUp union, which represents workers at ICBC.
In the letter, Doerkson says all options are on the table, including a hybrid model.
Doerkson says no-fault insurance has been “very challenging” for the residents for multiple reasons.
“Obviously we have to provide affordable insurance coverage for all of our residents, but for those that have experienced catastrophic injury and potentially life-altering injury, this program has not supported them well,” he said at an unrelated news conference in Vancouver.
“And in so many cases, we need to improve that and we absolutely have to contemplate this insurance model.”
Doerkson said he had made “no promises” about the plan.
But in the Sept. 29 letter to the vice-president of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, and the presidents of the Law Society of B.C., the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C., and the Canadian Bar Association, he says new legislation would be passed within a year of the BC Conservatives being elected.
“Accident victims will get back their right to recover for their serious injuries, and government will get out of the legal profession’s business.” he says.
He says B.C. can look to Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, P.E.I., and Newfoundland and Labrador, which “all have hybrid insurance models.
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“We can learn from them and do better,” he adds.
What is the no-fault insurance model in B.C.?
Called the Enhanced Care model, it is based on the premise that any B.C. resident injured in a crash is entitled to care and recovery benefits, no matter who is responsible for the crash.
In January, ICBC’s CEO says that its no-fault insurance model has kept rates steady for years.
There has been opposition since ICBC switched to the no-fault model.
“The provincial government is gouging ICBC for profits while denying seriously injured victims justice from our courts,” Steve Kooner, then-BC Conservative critic for the attorney general, said earlier this year.
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Under the no-fault model, it strips away people’s legal rights to sue following a crash.
“I know the new system is not perfect,” Eby said on Thursday.
“I know because we’re doing a review right now to make sure that people are looked after under that system. But I can tell you this, that doubling people’s insurance costs by moving to the hybrid system that the Conservatives secretly proposed to do, by taking money from British Columbians to pay lawyers instead of pay people who are injured, that’s not the path forward to cost certainty for British Columbians.”
Eby said that if B.C. had the hybrid system, people’s car insurance would more than double every year.
“They won’t tell us how they’re gonna pay for their promises,” Eby said of Doerkson.
Campaigning on Thursday, Doerkson said the letter sent to the trial lawyers was never intended to be private.
“The reality is that we need to contemplate ICBC,” he said.
“There are very serious and real challenges. And, you know, the reality is David Eby does not seem willing to talk about that. We’ve had a committee in the legislature that began, that had hundreds of people that have reached out to this committee to explain and share the challenges that they have had to endure in this system.”
Doerkson added that the current system has to be affordable and there has to be support for people who have been injured in an accident.
He did not say how the BC Conservatives would fund the changes to ICBC, but did say that they are trying to supercharge an economy in peril.
“The reality is that we have a number of industries that are struggling under the weight of permitting,” Doerkson said.
“We have residents that are struggling under downward pressure of taxes that continue to be thrown at them… We are absolutely committed to getting this economy going in British Columbia in every way we can.”
The BC Conservatives also announced on Thursday morning that if elected they will immediately introduce a $1,000 tax cut for most British Columbians, meaning residents will not have to pay income tax on their first $32,000 in earnings.
Saving you tens of dollars per year, while costing you hundreds! Vote BC NDP 😂
What the hell is insurance bureau of British Columbia lmao
the only thing that is going to freeze are autobody repairman wages and your coverage.
Watch Vaughan Palmer on the Sun he’s starting to sound a lot like last time!
If insurance gets too expensive people will just drive without it , its already started and will just get worse…. then what ?? free room and board ?
What’s next Eby, we all get a free house?? Who pays for this rate freeze ultimately? We do.
You’re just a liar as usual. And where’s my $1000 from your last election promise?
LOL sure thing Eby!!! Ohh the desperation!! This guy is so full of promises for stuff he could have attempted with his existing Majority government. All promises, no delivery! You’re so going down, NDP!!
BC Cons had to kick out another extremist?
Agou?
abolish ICBC as it is a cash cow, christy clark used it for the Olympics among several other ventures so they kicked her ass out, same with campbell, joe clark, harcourt, fantasy garden vander zalm all with scandals and botched expo as well
FREEZE ?? How about LOWER I have been driving and paying for 68 years and have not cost the in insurance companys a penny but it still costs me $ 1000.00 a year to drive . The cost should be no more than the paperwork…. get with it Eby !!
JR. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍.
Reeks of a desperate man.
This is now the 7th or 8th promise to payoff voters from the NDP.
Given the NDP were already planning a massive deficit again next year where is the new money coming from? We already spend more on interest payment than certain social services.
It’s crazy.
Anyone with kids think about them paying the off for the rest of their lives too.
I think most people in B.C. know EBY will promise you anything and not deliver.
The giveaway here is the word insurance. Insurance companies are the biggest scam on the planet. Its a business like anything else. You get nothing , while they make millions ,and increase your rates and lower your coverage
The communist is at it again!
Vote BC Conservative!
Liar liar pants on fire. We all have heard promises before
The Insurance Bureau of British Columbia is a Crown Corporation. So if they freeze rates, the BC taxpayers will have to fill the gap from inflation, probably through more government (taxpayer) debt. Nothing is free.
Anyone who stills believes anything NDP says needs to have a brain scan, for a presence of an actual brain.
Eby, Where the 1000 grocery benefit you promised in the last election and why would I even consider believing a liar.
NDP do not want to abolish ICBC as it is a cash cow for the gov’t as proven by past Lib gov’t. As to election promises by a sitting party, they do not sway me. I always say, “then why didn’t you already do it?
It’s amazing how Eby can make all these promises on how he will be saving the people of BC money now when he has never done anything in the last 2 years. Going on passed broken promises in the last election I don’t believe Eby will fulfill any of these promises in this election. Eby will say anything to win this election. I don’t know what the Conservatives will do but I do know what Eby has and hasn’t done he can’t be trusted
No fault insurance and frozen insurance rates forbad drivers. What could possibly go wrong?!
Eby should also promise to hire another 150K unemployed doctors. NDP voters always fall for that one.