October 30, 2003
Premium freeze leaves me cold
By NEIL WAUGH -- Edmonton Sun
http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/waugh_oct30.html

Finally, Premier Ralph Klein appears to get it. Well, sort of. Yesterday, the lumbering Tory mastodons may have actually made a decision on the auto insurance issue.

Although, Klein admitted that he still has to run his proposal for a premium freeze through cabinet next Monday and then bring it to a subsequent caucus meeting.

"I run a democratic cabinet and caucus," Klein said.

It's apparently become so democratic that when he tried to read the riot act at the last meeting on why the government had to corral the insurance issue before it got away totally from the struggling PCs, enough MLAs ignored Klein's fatherly words that he left early.

The deadlock at Monday's closed-door committee meeting only made matters worse.

And news out of Nova Scotia - where the PC government there not only rolled back all auto insurance premiums by 20% on Tuesday but passed legislation compelling insurance companies to issue rebates - raised the political bar some more.

Considering that Nova Scotia has had a premium freeze in place since May 1 - and the Bluenose Tories still only won a minority government in the recent provincial election - Ralph's freeze is hardly reinventing the wheel.

"I'm frustrated," Klein said.

No kidding. Especially after I reminded him of ashen-faced Bernard Lord at the annual premiers meeting in July. The New Brunswick premier had just whistled past the political graveyard after voters rose up and nearly defeated his government over auto insurance premium gouging.

Since then, the Alberta Tories have been unable or unwilling to come up with significant auto insurance reforms that will fulfil Klein's solemn promise that Albertans will again have comparable rates with other western provinces.

"The primary concern here is not the insurance industry," Klein said. "The primary concern is the person who is paying the premium."

And it's finally come to his attention that there are a lot more Marthas and Henrys out there than there are insurance company suits or whiplash lawyers.

But the sad part about all this is that even with Ralph's freeze and the goofy reforms that Finance Minister Pat Nelson is trying to ram through an increasingly skeptical and suspicious Tory caucus, insurance rates won't go down.

Klein let the cat (more like a political tiger, actually) out of the bag yesterday. The Nelson plan only applies to third-party premiums.

"Collision (coverage) is optional," Klein insisted. "That's why we haven't addressed the issue.

"You don't have to have collision (coverage)," the premier continued.

Obviously, if you have been chauffeured around in a government Buick for the last 14 years, you may not realize that collision insurance is absolutely necessary in Alberta.

Banks and finance companies insist you carry it before they're willing to give you a car loan.

And how many Albertans out there don't finance their auto purchases? Stand up, I can't see you.

Klein also admitted there's nothing in Nelson's so-called "reforms" to prevent insurers from simply jacking up premiums on collision and glass to make up for the minor losses they claim will occur when Nelson's premium tables come into effect.

"I don't know if they would or wouldn't," Klein winced when I pointed out the obvious to him.

If this kind of Tory snow job sounds familiar, you're not alone. Energy Minister Murray Smith fed Klein the same line of baloney when he insisted that Albertans have the lowest power rates in the country. It was clear that they also had the highest power bills, because Smith failed to read the riot act to the bureaucrats at the Energy and Utilities Board that continue to rubber-stamp a myriad of service charges.

Consumers didn't buy it. The Tories didn't do anything about it. And now the PCs are hoping and praying that the toothless electric power advocate can get them out of the jam in the upcoming winter power season.

"I'd like to get the whole thing resolved by the end of the year," Klein said. Not with the Nelson plan it won't be. Meanwhile, back in Halifax, they're getting rebates on their auto insurance.