Will Ontario’s new government help lower auto insurance rates?

Don Forgeron, president and CEO of the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), thinks Ontario’s new Progressive Conservative government could help reduce auto insurance rates for drivers in the province.

“At this point, we would characterize it as cautious optimism that we can work with the government here,” Forgeron said at Gore Mutual’s Fast Forward event in Toronto on Thursday. “Auto insurance in Ontario is the bane of our existence… For 25 years, we’ve been struggling to fix this product.”

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Last year, the province’s Liberal government introduced its Fair Auto Insurance Plan, based on recommendations made in a report by David Marshall, the province’s advisor on auto insurance, aimed at reducing fraud in the system and lowering premiums.

With the recent change in government, it remains to be seen how much of the Fair Auto Insurance Plan will be implemented, noted Neil Weir, Gore Mutual’s vice-president of claims.

“The Marshall report was a very broad report with an awful lot of content and a lot of detail, and it’s anyone’s guess what particular suggested reforms are going to be adopted by the government,” Weir told Canadian Insurance Top Broker.

But Weir remains hopeful that the recent change in government won’t lead to Marshall’s recommendations being swept under the rug.

“The feedback we’ve gotten from IBC with regard to some of the consultations they’ve had with the government pre-election was that the Conservative party was very supportive of some of the ideas the Marshall report enumerated,” he said.

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This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.