B.C.’s auto insurer in ‘financial dumpster fire,’ major reforms needed: minister
VANCOUVER — Major reforms are on the way to extinguish a “financial dumpster fire” at British Columbia’s public auto insurer, which projects a $1.3-billion net loss this fiscal year, the province’s attorney general said Monday.
David Eby blamed the crisis at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia on years of “reckless decisions” by the previous Liberal government, including taking more than $1 billion from the insurer and transferring it to government coffers.
He also said the government ignored warnings and recommendations made in a 2014 report by independent consultants Ernst & Young, and appears to have scrubbed the recommendations from a version of the report presented to the public.
“They knew the dumpster was on fire, but they pushed it behind the building instead of trying to put the fire out,” he said at a news conference, adding that before last spring’s election, the Liberals projected ICBC’s losses to be $11 million.