Rein in costs, and spell it out, retired prof tells ICBC

A retired Simon Fraser University economist says the province needs to go even further reining in costs at ICBC, and must clearly spell out to drivers what those costs actually are.

In his report for the Fraser Institute, John Chant gives the NDP credit for recent changes rewarding good drivers.

But he says more changes are needed, including making costs transparent.

He says finding details was a challenge.

“To find the addition to basic insurance from no-fault, it’s in the middle of a thousand-page document somewhere. To look at the cost of providing all these services to the government, that’s in a rather obscure note in ICBC’s financial statements.”

Chant says he couldn’t even find the numbers for how much older and safer drivers subsidize younger and more dangerous drivers.

He had to estimate using data from other jurisdictions.

At the end of the day, he says drivers should know the details of ICBC’s policies so they can judge if they like them or not.