MPI's request to hike insurance cost prompts unexpected question from consumers' group: Is the ask too low?
MPI CEO Satvir Jatana says various consideration went into 3% ask, including people's economic circumstances
The new head of Manitoba Public Insurance says a three-per-cent rate hike for the cost of auto insurance is high enough, even though some of her staff say the Crown corporation should ask motorists for even more.
Satvir Jatana, who was appointed president and CEO of MPI in January, defended the corporation's proposed rate hike as the hearing into its application to increase rates by three per cent began Monday at the Public Utilities Board (PUB) in Winnipeg.
The proposal is also being criticized as potentially too low from an unlikely source: a group advocating for the consumers who'd pay those premiums.
Peggy Barker, a board member with the Manitoba branch of the Consumers' Association of Canada, says the group's pushback is due to the corporation's actuaries expressing in documents to the PUB that a rate hike exceeding six per cent, not three, is needed to recover costs and losses from last year.
The Crown corporation reported a $130-million loss in the 2023-24 fiscal year due to ballooning expenses, stemming in part from a 10-week strike, as well as a hailstorm resulting in more than 15,000 claims.
"Although it may sound attractive," Barker said of a lower rate increase, "we're concerned that it might be short-term gain for long-term pain, just putting off the inevitable and then making [future rate increases] heavier when it does hit" consumers.
Manitobans have stake in MPI
Barker said the association looks out for consumers, but it also wants to ensure the long-term health of the Crown corporation.
"When that business is owned by the consumers, as it is in the case of MPI, it's really important that it be well-managed and stable economically," she said.
Despite the opinion of MPI's actuarians, the corporation is forging ahead with the lower rate request of three per cent.
Jatana said in an interview Monday the decision was made in the spring, when MPI was coping with uncertainty around the backlog from last year's strike and the severity of the claims it had yet to review.
There were also worries around inflation, economic circumstances and that ratepayers previously had a few years of rate decreases and rebates, including a five per cent reduction in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
"So for us to be asking for a large increase next year did not deliver on our mandate of being affordable and predictable," Jatana said.
"I remain confident that three per cent is more aligned to what we need."
Her trust has been bolstered in recent months by the clearing of the strike backlog and cost savings from cutting some management jobs.
She said the actuaries would have downgraded their ask, but Jatana said MPI didn't have time to submit updated numbers before the PUB hearing began.
She wouldn't reveal the number, but said the corporation has "minimized the gap" between the three per cent sought by MPI and the higher ask of its actuarial team. The actuaries are slated to present to the PUB on Friday.
Chris Klassen, legal counsel for the Consumers' Association of Canada's Manitoba branch, said the association has no reason to doubt MPI weighed various factors in determining its rate request of three per cent, but it "does not condone the abandonment of an evidence-based process for the sake of affordability," he told CBC Manitoba Up to Speed host Faith Fundal.
"It creates too much risk for tomorrow's customers, at the expense of today's rates."
Group also concerned about $10 fee increase
The association is also concerned MPI is seeking a flat $10 increase to the price of driver base premiums. Barker said the corporation hasn't justified the first increase to this fee in 27 years, which impacts all drivers whether or not they're insuring a vehicle.
Jatana said the money from that increase would go toward the universal benefit supporting every person injured in a motor vehicle collision.
"It's something that we want to sustain and preserve, and we felt it was a fair ask for Manitobans to contribute another $10 toward those benefits," she said.
The Public Utilities Board is scheduled to consider MPI's rate application over the next three weeks and make a decision on the upcoming rate in December.
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With files from Faith Fundal