Ontario has lowest crash rates, highest premiums, says AG

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Ontario has one of the lowest crash rates in Canada, but drivers pay the country’s highest private passenger automobile insurance rates. That’s according to a new 2022 report by Bonnie Lysyk, the province’s Auditor General.

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The report found that between 2017 and 2021, the average premium increased by almost 14 per cent, and now stands at $1,642. On top of that, rates vary depending on where the driver lives. The office got quotes for ten policies, with everything the same – including the automobile being insured – except for where the driver lived. The premiums ranged from $1,200 per year for someone living in London, Ontario; to as high as $3,350 per year in Brampton, Ontario.

The Office of the Auditor General is an independent office of the Legislative Assembly. It conducts audits of the provincial government and organizations in the public sector that receive provincial funding, to promote accountability and value for money.

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The report criticized the Ministry of Finance and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) for not acting on past recommendations to reduce insurance costs, including standardizing medical care for crash victims, and requiring repair shops to be accredited.

Lysyk’s report suggested that the FSRA could look at money-saving initiatives used in other provinces. Alberta regularly pays directly for the treatment of crash injuries, instead of providing cash settlements for people to seek their own treatment. British Columbia and Saskatchewan licence or certify repair shops, protecting consumers against fraud or poor-quality repairs. The audit also recommends that FSRA reassess how insurance companies determine premiums, using a driver’s address, gender, and age as variables when calculating the cost.

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The report also took aim at the provincial government, saying it is “ignoring its own experts when ultimately deciding when and where to build highways.” It said the Ontario government decided to build four highways, but at the cost of not building six others than were rated more important by experts at the Ministry of Transportation, and which had already secured funding.

The premiums ranged from $1,200 per year for someone living in London, Ontario; to as high as $3,350 per year in Brampton, Ontario.

Two of the highways that have been deferred were in Northern Ontario, with $158 million reallocated to projects in southern Ontario. In the report, Lysyk said “Highway construction projects are some of the most expensive and time-consuming building projects the province undertakes. But we found that the government made a number of changes on highway priorities, without reviewing all the relevant facts from their own experts.”

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The Ontario government has prioritized additional projects, including Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, but the report said the Ministry experts would have not recommended they be built yet. Lysyk also said that the Ford government directed Ministry staff to prepare business cases for eliminating tolls on highways 412 and 418 in the Greater Toronto Area before costs for the highways had been recovered. The government also asked for a business case to eliminate licence-plate sticker fees, but the information was not provided in time for review, and did not include all relevant information.

The report did find that the Ministry of Transportation spent nearly $2 billion on highway expansion and repair projects in 2021 and 2022 across its 17,000-kilometre network, and that according to Statistics Canada, Ontario has “some of the most well-maintained highways in Canada.” Transport Canada reports that Ontario also has the lowest rate of traffic fatalities in the country.