By Greg Fry

Stone blasts NDP for ICBC rate hike

Sep 6, 2017 | 3:28 PM

Kamloops — Shameful.

The reaction of Kamloops – South Thompson Liberal MLA Todd Stone to the NDP’s decision to hike ICBC rates.

Yesterday, B.C. Attorney General David Eby confirmed ICBC is asking the provincial utilties commission to raise rates by 6. 4 per cent this year to cover losses totalling over $500 million last year. Eby said optional rates will also rise noting the average driver will see a blended increase of eight per cent.

“I think it’s very disappointing,” said Stone. “The vast majority of motorists in this province have both the basic and the optional insurance coverages and they’re going to pay an additional $130 more now because of this decision the NDP has taken.”

He said the move to hike rates comes on the heels of “an array of intitiatives the BC Liberal government implemented the last four years to keep rates as low as possible.”

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Those initiatives included cracking down on fraud, targeting distracted driving, implementing a new IT system (which he says saved ICBC $90 million) and reducing management and salaries by 50 per cent.

Despite those inititiatives, he acknowleged “more needed to be done” – hence his decision to call for an independent, comprehensive, third party review of ICBC – which resulted in a report he thinks Eby didn’t even bother to read.

“He in fact appears not to have read the report, which was sitting on his desk. It was finalized and provided to government in July this year, only a month ago. And instead, he opted to delay and dither and defer taking any concrete action to apply downward pressure on rates.”

Stone blamed financial losses on a number of factors, including increased collision rates and lower investment returns.