Winnipeg, Manitoba — June 3, 2018 — Manitoba Public Insurance has proposed premium increases that will cost the average driver about $30 per vehicle per annum — a 2.2 percent hike.
MPI made the request to the Public Utilities Board in June, who are likely to approve it at some point this summer. With more than half-a-million clients, the proposal could net the insurer more than $15 million.
While the cross-the-board hike may be unpopular with the average driver, the MPI is under significant pressure to bolster its capital reserves in the wake of British Columbia’s own public insurance company collapse last year. While the move may be fiscally responsible, it does not live up to the goals of the MPI, which aims to make worse drivers pay increased premiums, while protecting better ones from rate hikes. Last year, the insurer also chose to push for a cross-the-board rate hike of 3.7 percent.
“We fully recognize that our customers expect us to deliver comprehensive auto insurance coverage and service at rates that are affordable, predictable and stable over time,” the insurance company’s president Ben Graham said in a press release.
