UCP MUST IMMEDIATELY FREEZE AUTO INSURANCE PREMIUMS

Edmonton - The Alberta NDP are calling on the UCP to freeze insurance premiums until 2021. Insurance premiums are skyrocketing. Insurance companies are profiting. And economic pressures of COVID-19 are making it harder for ordinary Albertans to make it by. 

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said, “It is shameful that Jason Kenney is letting insurance companies get away with taking unreasonable amounts from Albertans struggling to make it by during the pandemic. It is wrong and it must stop.”

Brandon Rudics, a father from Lethbridge, wrote to the NDP and said, “Since the insurance cap was lifted, our premiums increased drastically by 40 per cent. This put heavy pressure on my young family. The company also wanted two months paid upfront in March right when the financial pressures of the pandemic started to hit. This held us hostage as we had no choice but to pay so we could drive our children to crucial health appointments.”

Albertans on average have been paying a twenty-four percent increase in premiums according to LowerRates.ca. Albertans now pay an average of $1,632 for auto insurance compared to $1,316 in 2018. This is an increase of $316. FAIR Alberta reported in June that the insurance industry is set to net a billion in profits this year due to increased premiums and decreased costs in claims.  

The UCP’s decision to remove the five percent cap on insurance has made it easier for insurance companies to profit. The UCP were lobbied by Nick Koolsbergen, Jason Kenney’s former Chief of Staff, on behalf of insurance companies to remove the cap.

“The UCP are more interested in backroom deals with their friends and allies in profitable corporations than they are in helping Albertans,” said NDP Finance Critic Shannon Phillips.

The UCP announced a panel to review increasing insurance premiums in December of 2019. Nothing yet has come of that announcement. 

NDP Service Alberta Critic Jon Carson added, “The UCP have sat idly by while Albertans have suffered. No report or piece of legislation will do anything of substance unless it immediately stops the increases of insurance premiums.”