Ontario auto insurance rates drop by less than 1%

TORONTO – After two straight quarters of increases, auto insurance rates in Ontario have now dropped — by less than one per cent.

Approved rates posted Friday by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario for the third quarter of 2017 show an average decrease of 0.14 per cent.

Rates went up in the second quarter by an average of 0.76 per cent and in the three months before that, they increased by 1.24 per cent.

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That means rates have decreased on average by around eight per cent since 2013, when the Liberal government promised to cut rates by an average of 15 per cent by August 2015.

But when that self-imposed deadline passed, Premier Kathleen Wynne admitted it had been what she called a “stretch goal.”

A report earlier this year by Ontario’s auto insurance adviser found that the province has the most expensive auto insurance premiums in Canada despite also having one of the lowest levels of accidents and fatalities.