For most drivers, a car is not optional, it\u2019s essential to work. Ontario\u2019s 9 million drivers pay the highest auto insurance rates in the country, while receiving the poorest coverage and benefits. That\u2019s the reality of \u201cno fault\u201d insurance which the Liberal government introduced in 2010 when rates last sky\u00e2\u20ac\u2018rocketed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0No fault reduced rates minimally, while reducing coverage and benefits catastrophically. Many policy holders injured in serious accidents are now tied up in the courts, suing insurance companies for the benefits they thought they had.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s biggest insurance companies are laughing all the way to bank, with a $4.4 billion profit in 2012 \u2014 up 25% over 2011.<\/p>\n
Taxi drivers face even higher rates, so their take home pay is often far below the minimum wage after insurance, gas, licensing, and other fees. Most are forced to work 70 to 80 hours a week just to make ends meet. In response to complaints about the exorbitant fleet rates for taxis, the companies refused to write insurance in some\u00a0Ontario\u00a0cities, forcing drivers to either accept the diktat or starve.<\/p>\n
The Insurance Bureau of\u00a0Canada\u00a0says rates in\u00a0Ontario\u00a0are the highest in\u00a0Canada\u00a0because of massive fraud by drivers in\u00a0Brampton, near\u00a0Pearson\u00a0International\u00a0Airport. But there is another, far more believable explanation:\u00a0Brampton\u00a0is home to one of the largest South Asian populations in the country, with many new Canadians and residents settling there.\u00a0A vulnerable population for greedy corporations to exploit, as the super\u00e2\u20ac\u2018profitable insurance companies know so well.\u00a0These are the real fraudsters, whom successive\u00a0Ontario\u00a0governments have allowed\u00a0to write\u00a0their own\u00a0cheques\u00a0with a built in 12% rate of profit on every policy.<\/p>\n
While the companies hold the public hostage, the best the NDP can do is press the Liberals for a 15% rate reduction, which the government now says will be \u201ccomplicated\u201d. The real complication is that the Liberals, Tories and NDP have all received financial contributions from the companies and\/or the Insurance Bureau. None are willing to take on the companies, though it\u2019s a simmering election issue.<\/p>\n
Ontario\u00a0Communists have been campaigning since October for public auto insurance which would cut rates in half for most drivers, with full benefits and coverage. Public auto insurance already exists in BC,\u00a0Saskatchewan\u00a0and\u00a0Manitoba, where it was introduced more than 40 years\u00a0ago,\u00a0and in\u00a0Quebec\u00a0in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Public auto insurance cuts out private profit, and the profit motive. Public insurance agencies like ICBC just have to remain solvent, bringing in a bit more in premiums than they pay out in claims. The \u201cbit more\u201d pays for administration. Who benefits?\u00a0The public.<\/p>\n
Public auto insurance is part of a transportation policy that includes public ownership and development of mass urban rapid transit systems, urgent expansion of inter\u00e2\u20ac\u2018city rapid transit using publicly owned and operated rail services like GO Transit, and developing a Canadian car that\u2019s small, fuel efficient, environmentally sustainable and affordable for domestic and export sale.<\/p>\n
This would create good jobs and pay\u00a0cheques\u00a0in\u00a0Ontario, and should be paid for from substantially increased corporate taxes \u2014 not from the\u00a0farebox. A Canadian car should be developed as a Crown corporation, generating profits for the public treasury which could then also be used for public transit.<\/p>\n
Public response to the CPC (Ontario)\u2019s campaign has been very positive. There is a lot of anger at the insurance companies and right\u00e2\u20ac\u2018wing governments that many people feel are robbing them blind. Many voters also connect public auto insurance with the NDP, and the Rae government that campaigned for this policy in 1990 and then abandoned it two years later after the companies held a demonstration on the front lawn of Queen\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n
The CPC (Ontario) has demonstrated at the offices of Liberal Transportation Minister Glenn Murray in\u00a0Toronto, and Municipal Affairs Minister Linda Jeffrey in\u00a0Brampton, among others. The Party has sent an Open Letter and campaign leaflet to Members of the Legislature, indicating that the coming budget must include a transportation policy based on people\u2019s needs, not corporate greed.<\/p>\n
Campaign stops still ahead include\u00a0Ottawa\u00a0on Jan. 30,\u00a0Brampton\u00a0on Feb. 2, and Guelph\u00e2\u20ac\u2018Kitchener on Feb. 11 (including a public meeting at 5:30 pm, Room 441, University Centre,\u00a0University\u00a0ofGuelph). Stops in\u00a0Hamilton,\u00a0Sudbury\u00a0and\u00a0Windsor\u00a0are scheduled for mid\u00e2\u20ac\u2018February.<\/p>\n