New Brunswick, insurers agree on 13.5% rate decrease

The government of New Brunswick has come to an agreement with the province’s insurance industry that will see premiums drop an average of 13.5% by Mar. 1, 2007.
As promised in Premier Shawn Graham’s Charter for Change, the plan involves eliminating gender and geographic areas as rating criteria.
“We will implement a process that will allow for a re-evaluation of traffic patterns, population redistribution and other relevant criteria to assess risk to develop new boundaries that are fair to all New Brunswickers, rather than simply relying on arbitrary geographic boundaries,” Justice and Consumer Affairs Minister T.J. Burke said in a press release. “[The provincial] government will also take additional measures to protect consumers from a return to the days of unpredictable premium spike.”
The government and the insurance industry have been in negotiations for 60 days. Under the terms of the new deal, insurance companies will have to re-file their rates with the New Brunswick Insurance Board in December 2006.
“Because the insurance industry is a competitive one, insurance companies will be implementing details of the government’s announcement on an individual basis,” says Don Forgeron, IBC vice president, Atlantic region. “We want to affirm that prior to these talks and [this] announcement, New Brunswick already had an extensive rate regulation process in place, led by the New Brunswick Insurance Board, to protect consumers and sustain a healthy industry. Under this rate review process, rates had declined already by 33.7% in New Brunswick in the last 30 months.”