Bell: Alberta auto insurers, drivers wait for Danielle Smith UCP's next move

This is a story that just keeps on giving. The tale just gets curiouser and curiouser, to quote Alice in Wonderland.

That happens when the Alberta government rolls out a plan and then starts fiddling with the plan.

On Monday, Alberta’s auto insurance rate board, a group who have been in the news a lot lately, puts out a new bulletin and Alberta auto insurance companies get nervous.

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Late Monday, the auto insurance rate board reissues the bulletin, making their point even clearer.

The rate board tells the insurance companies they “will communicate future rate filing requirements once government decisions are made, with further guidance expected by the end of this calendar year.”

TRANSLATION. The rate board is waiting like the rest of us until the Alberta government decides exactly how they are going to proceed with auto insurance and what they will change when it comes to the right to sue after a collision.

As loyal readers of this column know, the Alberta government has been talking to injury lawyers about keeping them in the lawsuit business, at least for the big money claims.

As loyal readers of this column also know, the auto insurance rate board last week released arithmetic showing the savings in auto insurance premiums starting in January will be in the hundreds of dollars a year for many of us.

The rate board showed seniors would get savings of 20 per cent more as they went from middle-age to being a senior.

These significant savings come from providing a whole slew of benefits for those suffering after a collision. Medical costs, income replacement.

Now the insurance rate board is expecting the Smith government to come to them sooner rather than later and tell them to figure out what auto insurance premiums would look like if injury lawyers get back in the game.

The rate board would likely be given a list of options from the provincial government to price out the premiums and the politicians up in Edmonton would make a decision.