Ontario NDP says it would deliver 15% auto insurance rate decrease in first year

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath launched her party’s platform Thursday, saying her government would deliver a 15% reduction for auto insurance rates in its first year.

“A year after the Liberals agreed to a 15% reduction, few Ontario drivers have seen any cost decrease at all,” the platform says.

“We will make reductions effective immediately upon renewing policies, make transparent rate-setting permanent, and allow consumers to have a voice in the rate-setting process.”

The platform does not include specifics beyond that.

“I won’t do what the Liberals have done, which is change the rules around auto insurance to give the insurance companies a break so that their payouts are $2 billion less each and every year and then not force those savings to go back to the consumer,” Horwath said earlier this month.

In April, the Ministry of Finance reported that approved auto insurance rates had come down by 5.7% on average since August 2013, in line with its total goal of a 15% reduction by August 2015.

However, the NDP have argued that consumers aren’t seeing their premiums come down quickly enough, and that if their party were leading, policyholders would see savings immediately.

– With files from the Canadian Press