BC FORUM News - From The Advocate, Summer, 2019

The BC Liberals screwed up and we’re all paying for it

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David Black, President of MoveUP, doesn’t mince any words when it comes to the situation facing drivers and members of his union who work at ICBC.

“The reality of the situation is that the previous B.C. Liberal government siphoned over a billion dollars out of ICBC,” he says.

“After creating this enormous mess, they hid the recommendations that their own studies showed would have helped to at least alleviate some of the issues.

“Quite frankly, the BC Liberals screwed up and stuck us all with the bill,” says Black. “They ought to have been smart enough to know what their actions would lead to. They still went down that path and betrayed British Columbians.”

Years of mismanagement by the Liberals also supported a big crowd of ambulance chasers, and massive increases in legal costs.

“There are now 683 personal injury lawyers listed in the Yellow Pages for the Vancouver area alone. That’s almost three times as many as the number of family physicians,” says Diane Wood, President of BC FORUM.

“They’ve worked under rules that allowed almost unlimited use of costly expert witnesses. Court cases lasted years. Small wonder ICBC’s legal costs are now 24 per cent of all expenditures,” says Wood.

Almost half of each court settlement goes to pay the lawyers and experts, not the person who has the insurance.

That’s why the NDP government has shifted minor injury disputes from the courts to an independent tribunal, and limited the maximum pain and suffering award for minor injuries. BC is the last province to take such steps.

In addition, insurance benefits have been expanded to fully cover rehabilitation services. ICBC has also increased benefits for lost pay and doubled lifetime benefits for those who suffer catastrophic injuries. It’s the first increase in these benefits in 25 years.