New Brunswick’s election campaign raises auto insurance issue

New Brunswick’s election campaign is heating up, with calls by Liberal candidates for the insurance industry to come up with ways to reduce auto rates or face a public auto insurance system.
According to a report by Canadian Press (CP), Greg Byrne, a Liberal candidate running in Fredericton for the Sept. 18 election, said motorists in the province still are paying the highest premiums in Atlantic Canada “despite the insurance industry’s soaring profits.”
CP cited Byrne saying that, if elected, a Liberal government would give the insurance industry 60 days to suggest ways to lower rates, or a public auto insurance system would be considered.
“There are significant profits being made and there should be benefit passed to consumers,” CP quotes Byrne as saying. “The industry has an opportunity to correct that and if they don’t, we will look at a public insurance system.”
The report goes onto say that New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord told reporters reforms introduced by his Conservative government in 2003 have lowered rates. Lord told CP that a public auto insurance scheme — which was recommended by a legislature committee — would actually be more expensive.
Don Forgeron, the Atlantic vice-president of the Insurance Board of Canada (IBC), said the Liberals were basing their arguments on a media report that skewed the actual numbers. He went on to note that government reforms have lowered rates in New Brunswick by an average of 30%.