B.C. party leaders clash over Conservatives' letter on ending ICBC no-fault insurance

A leaked letter signed by B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson appears to signal that his party would end ICBC’s no-fault insurance if elected on Oct. 24. The system has helped lower rates. Doerkson says a government led by his party would take steps to control costs and limit what lawyers can charge. During a campaign stop in Surrey on Wednesday, Oct. 7, he told reporters the party would propose limits on costs and lawyers’ fees in its platform, and said it was committed to a hybrid system.

ICBC launched its no-fault system, known as Enhanced Care, on May 1, 2021. It provides care and recovery benefits to anyone injured in a crash, while eliminating the ability to sue. The Crown corporation says moving to a care-based model “largely removed legal costs from the system” and saved $1.5 billion. It says that has made rates more affordable for customers.

Doerkson’s letter, dated Sept. 29, says a Conservative government would introduce legislation allowing crash victims to “get back their right to recover for their serious injuries,” while government would get out of the legal profession’s business. He says the party would replace the NDP’s no-fault ICBC “scheme” with a hybrid system, citing models in Ontario, Alberta and the Maritimes. The letter says the system would keep rates “affordable for drivers and protect people seriously hurt by reckless drivers.”

The letter says “everything’s on the table,” including opening auto insurance to private competition to drive down rates and restoring limits on minor-injury claims. Doerkson sent it to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, the Law Society of B.C., the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C. and the Canadian Bar Association, and signed it.

Asked about the letter on Tuesday, Doerkson said, “I’m not promising anything.” It was leaked Tuesday, Oct. 6. B.C. NDP Leader David Eby and his party have since raised it several times; the party shared the letter just before a B.C. Conservative news conference that morning. Doerkson said he had no illusion that a letter sent to a thousand people would be considered private. He added that he agreed with Eby on one point: British Columbians need affordable insurance. Their fundamental disagreement, he said, is that people whose lives are changed forever by catastrophic injuries must receive proper compensation, and that is not happening in the province.

Eby brought up the letter again on Wednesday at an unrelated news conference in Surrey, holding it up as he spoke. He described it as a “secret deal” Doerkson had written and signed, and said it would replace the current car insurance system with one that pays lawyers to sue each other again. Under the old system, Eby said, insurance money went toward paying the injured person’s lawyer and ICBC’s lawyer to sue each other in court. He said reversing no-fault insurance would raise costs for British Columbians.

The B.C. Conservatives have called for changes to ICBC’s no-fault system since 2023. One of the party’s main complaints is that some British Columbians have been unable to receive enough compensation after catastrophic or fatal crashes. “This is a system that has to change; it is not supporting our British Columbians well,” Doerkson said.