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Province sees flurry of P&C insurance legislation


May 17, 2018   by Jason Contant


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Quebec is seeing several proposed legislative changes that will – or could – impact property and casualty insurance in the province, the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s (IBC) director of communications and public affairs told Canadian Underwriter Thursday.

Pierre Babinsky was discussing industry trends facing auto, property and commercial lines in Quebec.

On the commercial side, a bill is expected to be introduced in the National Assembly of Quebec within the next 10 days that would help ensure that condominium corporations collect enough money in reserve funds to effect all necessary preventative maintenance, Babinsky said. This is intended to help reduce the number of claims in the sector.

“What we found in the past several years is that the number of claims in condo insurance has increased dramatically,” Babinsky reported, leading to premium and deductible increases and a tightening of that segment of the market. In effect, IBC has asked the provincial government to “better supervise” condo corporations.

Legislation has also been introduced aimed at simplifying the claims management process and clarifying the condo corporation’s responsibility in terms of what coverage to get for the building, Babinsky added. IBC will be looking to see if these proposed changes will pass before the end of the current National Assembly session (June 15 is the deadline for legislation to be adopted before the provincial election in October).

Other legislative-related changes:

  • The introduction of P&C Group Insurance in Quebec and how it may affect the sharing economy. “Contrary to other provinces, P&C Group Insurance does not exist in Quebec, so it… restricts some of the options we have in terms of adapting to sharing economy,” Babinsky said;
  • The recent introduction of legislation that allows testing of automated vehicles on certain roads in Quebec and associated pilot projects. “Our industry has been looking at again how we are going to adopt to the evolution of the situation,” Babinsky said.

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