Nova Scotia has public mandate to replace the auto cap with a deductible, but higher premiums would ensue: insurer

Nova Scotia’s newly-elected premier, Darrell Dexter, is within his mandate to remove the cap on minor injuries and replace it with a deductible, but he must be prepared for an increase in the cost of premium for auto insurance, says George Cooke, president and CEO of The Dominion.
Challenges to the province’s cap are currently before the provincial Court of Appeal, and there’s a chance that the regulation may be struck down because it is found ultra vires, or beyond the scope of legislature’s power to put such a cap in place, Cooke says.
“The new premier has a majority of Nova Scotians voting for him and he made it clear during the campaign that he thought these caps were bad public policy and they were limiting compensation to people that shouldn’t have it limited in that way,” he continues.
“He quite properly has the mandate of the people to go ahead and do that.”
The election of the new premier forces the question to be asked whether or not the plaintiff’s bar will continue to pursue the challenges of the cap if the premier is going to put a change in place that ultimately gives them the outcome that its looking for, Cooke says.
Two questions need to be asked, Cooke says. They are:
•    What is the will of the legislature today, as elected by the people of Nova Scotia?
•    What was the will of the legislature in 2003 [when the caps were put in place]?
“It appears that the courts have said that the will of the legislature in 2003 was that it was okay to have these caps, and the public got the corresponding premium decreases,” he continues. “Today, the public may say: ‘It’s okay, we’ll pay more for auto insurance because we want to provide an increased level of compensation to these people that aren’t seriously injured.’”
Should Dexter move to remove the cap, the upside of the decision would be the removal of any uncertainty that has existed since 2003, when the cap was first implemented, Cooke said. “We may have a more expensive product, but there won’t be any more uncertainty about what the product will be.”