Auto insurance rates rise in Ontario despite Liberal pledge to cut by 15 per cent

TORONTO – Auto insurance rates are rising in Ontario, moving the Liberal government even further away from a self-imposed target of an average 15-per-cent reduction.

The Liberals promised in 2013 to cut auto insurance premiums an average of 15 per cent by August 2015, but after that deadline came and went, Premier Kathleen Wynne later admitted that was what she called a “stretch goal.”

The Financial Services Commission of Ontario says that approved rates in the third quarter of 2016 increased by an average of 1.5 per cent.

That knocks the average since August 2013 – which had at one point climbed over 10 per cent – back down to 8.35 per cent, or a little over halfway to their goal.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa says programs that will reduce rates further have yet to come into effect, so though reductions are taking time, “they’re happening.”

He says the government still wants to see rates cut by an average of 15 per cent, though there’s no longer a deadline attached to the goal.