ICBC brings in ‘Fairness Office’ to restore trust, accountability

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — A new complaint process for ICBC is meant to restore trust in the province’s public auto insurance system.

ICBC is setting up a Fairness Office aimed at bringing more transparency and accountability to the system. B.C.’s Attorney General says this is where drivers can go if they think they’re paying too much for insurance or have been wrongly accused of causing a crash.

“We simply want people to get access to benefits that they’re entitled to in a way with as few barriers as possible,” David Eby says.

He adds crash victims will have access to pre-litigation payments, so they can be compensated faster, hopefully encouraging people to trust ICBC since “their public insurer is acting in the public interest.”

“When someone calls up and they’re injured and everybody agrees that they’re entitled to a certain amount of money under their claim, they shouldn’t have to go out and hire a lawyer to access what they’re entitled to under their insurance. They will still be able to sue if they feel that it’s not adequate to compensate them for their injury and they don’t have to pay somebody 30 per cent of that.”

He adds this should also help erase losses linked to high court costs. Eby says most complaints about compensation following a crash would still be addressed by the Civil Resolution Tribunal or through the courts.

.@Dave_Eby says focus of new “fairness office” is to restore public trust in @icbc. Office will resolve specific complaints and address concerning trends. #bcpoli @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/GCrras59MC

— Marcella Bernardo (@Bernardo1130) January 29, 2020

However, he admits the changes won’t have much to do with dousing what he’s has been calling ‘a financial dumpster fire’ left burning by the former B.C. Liberal government.

“I don’t think we’re there yet. I don’t think people have that kind of confidence and so, we’re addressing a very clear gap in terms of people’s perceptions of ICBC.”

Nonetheless, Eby says he is confident changes made over the past couple years have “stabilized” ICBC finances, but not enough to prevent another rate increase –which should be announced in the next couple of weeks.

ICBC already has a fairness office with a $200,000 budget, but Eby said it is hard to find and there’s no statutory obligation for ICBC to respond to its recommendations.

Under the changes, the commissioner will be appointed by cabinet, complaints can be filed online and the nature of complaints, and the commissioner’s recommendations and ICBC’s responses must be posted publicly in plain language.

With files from the Canadian Press