BC Transportation minister Todd Stone claimed that the Insurance Corporation of B.C.’s (ICBC) decision to drop insurance coverage for luxury cars is not final, and that he is considering other options before committing to any single one. Stone’s reassurance comes despite an outspoken critic calling the previously-announced decision a “diversion” to conceal the public insurer’s true rate issues.
Stone mentioned yesterday in an interview with radio station
CHNL that he is considering an alternative plan that involves limiting the amount of pay out given to drivers of cars valued more than $150,000 instead of outright dropping them from ICBC’s coverage.
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“Other jurisdictions have looked at is it viable to perhaps put a limit on the total dollar value of damages for… costs on some of this stuff, so, we’re going to look at that,” Stone said. “Should it just be wide open? $34,000 dollars for a door? Or do we say, you know what, we’re going to cover the cost of that door up to a maximum, that’s to some degree less than that $34,000?”
Stone made it clear that no decisions have been set in stone, but the goal to prevent basic ordinary ratepayers from subsidizing expensive luxury repairs remains.
“I’ve asked our team in the ministry to look at that question and to understand what the options are that are available to us that whereby, we could put some ceilings or some limits on the extent to which the rest of us ratepayers would actually cover the costs of collisions that these cars are involved in,” he explained.
MLA and former leader of the BC NDP Adrian Dix has criticized Stone and his ministry, calling them “foolish”. Dix pointed out that the ICBC is struggling to explain the need for such an overly-complicated scheme that only affects 3,000 luxury vehicles in BC, out of the province’s 2.1 million total vehicles.
“They’ve mismanaged (ICBC), and they are desperately trying to create a diversion,” Dix told
Vancouver Sun. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing and he’s making the situation worse and worse.”
Dix believes that the decision to drop luxury car coverage was meant to distract from the ICBC’s real problems, such as rising claim and injury costs.
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