CUTS
TO CAR RATES DELAYED |
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ONTARIO motorists will wait as
long as 22 months to benefit from insurance premium cuts that Dalton McGuinty's
Liberals promised to deliver within 90 days of taking office. |
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Data obtained by Sun Media
shows the delay, caused by slow processing, will cost drivers about $575
million. |
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The processing bottleneck came
about because the new provincial government didn't add staff to the office to
which insurers were required to file rate reductions by Jan. 23. |
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"The rate filings were
very complex and it takes time to go through them,"said Rowena McDougall,
a spokesperson for Ontario's Finance Ministry. Ontario's 61 insurers typically
file rate changes once or twice a year. With those filings spread out across
the year, fewer than 10 typically come in a single month, a regulator said. |
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But regulators weren't able to
keep pace when all 61 insurers filed rate reductions in January. While some
took effect April 15, others won't until next month, perhaps later. |
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Drivers won't enjoy lower
premiums until they renew their insurance, and since most renew once a year,
that means some won't get a break until as late as August 2005. |
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YEAR-LONG WAIT |
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On average, motorists will have
to wait until the end of October --a year after the Liberals took office. |
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A Sun Media mathematical
analysis, validated by a statistician and mathematician, shows the delay from
January to November will cost motorists about $575 million. |
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That's too much for drivers
already struggling to pay premiums that skyrocketed in recent years, said Mark
Arsenault of the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA). |
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"It's definitely a lot of
money," said Arsenault, public affairs director for CAA, Ontario. Drivers
are losing about $60 million for each month the premium reductions are delayed,
the calculations show. |
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NO MASS HIRING |
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If that's true, said Arsenault,
why didn't the Ontario government hire people to speed the process? |
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Neither McGuinty nor Finance
Minister Greg Sorbara agreed to be interviewed about the delay and the costs to
motorists. A spokesperson for Sorbara was asked if the government could have
saved motorists millions by hiring people to process rate reductions. |
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"We're working as quickly
as we can," Diane Flanagan said in the spring. |
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Flanagan said the government
kept its word because it only promised it would require lower rates within 90
days, not lower premiums. |
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That's not true, said
Conservative MPP John O'Toole. |
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"That's the chicanery of
it all ... it's typical doublespeak," O'Toole said. |
"It's a failed promise.
It's one of many," he said.
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