Forty-five years ago, B.C.’s first NDP government created ICBC to save drivers from the predations of private insurers. Today, car owners want to be saved from the predations of ICBC.
In 1973, then-premier Dave Barrett kept his election promise to answer the widespread complaints that British Columbians were being ripped off on their car insurance. His solution was affordable insurance through a public provider that could plow profits and investment returns into cheaper rates, instead of handing them to investors.
It worked. But as years passed, the corporation’s profits became too much of a temptation for governments. They began taking “dividends” from ICBC and dropping them into general revenue. Then they started interfering with rates to avoid the political fallout from raising them.
Government meddling and changing patterns of payouts have dug the corporation into a financial hole.
Now, with rising rates and proposed caps on payouts for minor injuries, drivers with long memories are experiencing flashbacks. Instead of getting ripped off by private corporations, the common perception is that we’re being ripped off by a public corporation.
If private insurers were responsible for this mess, voters would be demanding the creation of something like ICBC. When the public insurer is the one delving deeper into our pockets, is it time to ask fundamental questions?
A group called Rights Over Arbitrary Decisions charges that the government is giving ICBC “even more power and less accountability.”
Power without accountability sounds a lot like the situation that created ICBC in the first place.
