Committee Seeks Public Feedback on ICBC & Enhanced Care
You can learn something about a government's priorities from the words it uses.
With a review of no-fault insurance system and ICBC’s Enhanced Care now underway, how the provincial government talks about road use suggests they could benefit from hearing from more British Columbians.
At a recent meeting of the special committee leading the review, representatives of the Ministry of Attorney General and ICBC referenced claims, coverage, premiums, and rates over 100 times. Straight out of the insurance vocabulary, these four words have represented top concerns about ICBC’s viability since 2018, when then-Attorney General David Eby called the provincial agency a “dumpster fire”. Like any insurance company, ICBC’s challenge is to cover customer risks, grow the business, and make money, and for many years, it was losing many hundreds of millions of dollars.
The meeting in question, held on May 8th at the B.C. Legislative Assembly, included another 100 references to ICBC's source of revenue: its customers, also known as drivers, insureds, and ratepayers. The need to keep and expand their insurance business was expressed, in part, by 20 references to affordability.
Near the end of the meeting, ICBC President Jason McDaniel was asked by a member of the committee about the effect of the new system on cyclists, one of just six references to cycling and cyclists. "Of course, they don’t have insurance,” the member said in his preamble.
The comment went unchallenged, but it shouldn't have. Insurance isn't required when riding a bicycle, but it doesn't mean people who ride bikes don't have it.
Road use in B.C. and active modes
A 2019 government study of the travel habits of British Columbians suggested that, of the four million licensed drivers in B.C., only 22% drive exclusively. About 11% of the population use active modes (like cycling and walking) more than half the time; two-thirds of people use something other than a car to get around.
So it's actually quite likely that many cyclists are ICBC policyholders, in the end.
And what is a cyclist? In a BCCC survey run since 2020, around 80% of 200 respondents say they use a motor vehicle alongside other travel modes, whereas only 15% didn't use a motor vehicle at all.
All this suggests that relatively few British Columbians identify exclusively as cyclists, but lots of people bike and walk.
The new auto insurance model
People who bike and walk on B.C. roads—vulnerable road users—should thus be accounted for in any discussion of ICBC and their new care-based claims model.
That’s especially true since 2020, when changes to B.C.'s insurance laws that came into effect stripped away the ability to sue another ICBC customer for damages (otherwise known as tort rights, part of common law in Canada), and was replaced with today’s care-based insurance claims system. Since 2021, if you live in BC and you’re involved in a collision with a motor vehicle—on foot, bike or otherwise—you experience Enhanced Care.
So we also asked our survey respondents if they considered themselves ICBC customers. One in seven didn't know; yet, these changes—the loss of tort rights and the new care-based system—applies to everyone.
These changes have also resulted in over $1.6 billion in cost savings for ICBC since 2020, money which has gone to ICBC policy-holders in the form of policy premium rebates. Compare this with the investments ICBC has made in cycling safety over the past five years—just $780,000, or less than five hundredths of one percent of all the insurance rebates.
The concern? Many of our members say B.C. roads still aren't safe, and that’s backed up by evidence—from ICBC—of the rise in casualty crash rates in B.C. that past give years, and their disproportionate impacts on vulnerable road users.
Our survey respondents also say the new system doesn't seem to be fair, and many of those who have been in a crash and experienced the new system first-hand say they didn’t receive the care they expected.
The system doesn’t seem to be working for all British Columbians, and we think the Special Committee should hear from more of them.
What you can do
Share your feedback about the new auto insurance model—the special committee wants to hear from the public by June 25th at 2 pm.
Submit your written input—register on the BC Legislative Assembly’s Consultation Portal
Learn more about the changes to the insurance laws and ICBC since 2020, as well as the Special Committee to Review Provisions of the Insurance (Vehicle) Act and their consultation process here.
Join us
We’re actively collaborating with ICBC on public education and information programs for all road users, and helping them better understand the needs of vulnerable road users. That includes asking BCCC members what they think about no-fault insurance and Enhanced Care (such as through our recent survey), and sharing this input with the provincial government.
You can support this work, including responding to our ICBC survey, by becoming a BCCC member—it’s free to join.