Consumer and seniors’ advocacy groups have criticized a new bill regulating Manitoba’s auto insurance system, claiming it would entrench an unfair model that forces safer drivers to subsidize riskier ones.
The criticism follows the introduction of Bill 49 on October 6, titled the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Amendment Act. The bill seeks to formalize the province’s registered owner insurance system, where premiums are based on the driving record of the vehicle owner, rather than the actual driver.
Katrine Dilay, a lawyer with the Public Interest Law Centre, representing the Manitoba branch of the Consumers’ Association of Canada and the Manitoba Seniors Equity Action Coalition, said the current system leads to unfair outcomes.
“When people register vehicles for someone who isn’t actually driving, it distorts how insurance premiums are set,” Dilay explained in an interview with CBC News. “The result is that our safest drivers, those with the best safety records, are paying more than their actual risk to the system.”
Dilay argued that the bill would place the province in conflict with the Public Utilities Board, Manitoba’s independent insurance regulator. In 2017, the board instructed Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) to revise its premium calculation system to better reflect the actual risks to the public insurance pool. However, despite several subsequent orders, MPI has not implemented these changes.
Dilay suggested that moving to a driver-based model would not increase MPI’s revenue but would shift the financial burden onto higher-risk drivers, potentially reducing long-term claims costs and making insurance more affordable.
On the other hand, Matt Wiebe, the provincial minister responsible for MPI, defended the bill, calling it an affordability measure. Speaking at the Manitoba Legislative Building, he said, “Since the beginning of MPI, we’ve used the registered-owner model, and it works well. It provides access to insurance at an affordable rate.”
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