Vehicle insurance to rise -- The Canadian Press

By The Canadian Press

Insurance rates

Alberta board grants rate hikes to car insurers

Jan 11, 2020 | 1:59 PM

EDMONTON – New numbers confirm that many Alberta drivers are getting hit with hikes, and even some sharp spikes, in their auto insurance.

The Automobile Insurance Rate Board says that 27 insurers operating in Alberta were granted rate hikes in recent months, ranging from less than one per cent to almost 30 per cent for basic coverage on private passenger vehicles.

The board says the rate changes reflect the average hike for each particular insurer and that individual premiums can still vary.

Last fall the United Conservative government lifted a five per cent rate cap on automobile insurance, and the board says in the months that followed 92 per cent of firms that insure private passenger vehicles asked the board for a rate hike.

The cap was put in place by the previous NDP government two years earlier to address spiralling costs in auto insurance.

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The insurance industry says sharply rising payouts in recent years have put it in a financial squeeze, and those problems were worsened when the rate cap came in.