IBC launches consumer awareness campaign around Ontario auto

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) has launched a new consumer awareness campaign to stimulate stakeholder feedback on how best to bring down auto insurance rates in Ontario and to help consumers better understand their own insurance policies.

The campaign will include television, Internet and newspaper ads, billboard messages, mail drops and mall displays in several urban centres.

“Claims costs drive premiums. Until we can get costs under control, we will continue to have premiums that we all agree are too high,” says Ralph Palumbo, the IBC’s vice president for Ontario. The average private passenger auto premium in Ontario is $1,534. That compares to $1,051 in Alberta, $989 in Newfoundland and Labrador, and $800 in the Maritime provinces.

Palumbo acknowledges that Ontario has made important changes to auto insurance in the last couple of years to help bring costs down. “The reforms are starting to work, but there are still outstanding issues to be resolved.”