Vaughn Palmer: With Eby's ICBC flip-flop, what could possibly go wrong?
Credit to Author: Hugh Dawson| Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2020 01:54:51 +0000
VICTORIA — David Eby was in his first month as the cabinet minister responsible for ICBC when he explained why he did not support no-fault auto insurance as a way of reining in the cost of lawyers and litigation.
ICBC’s soaring tab for legal costs was a problem the corporation itself had created by treating claimants aggressively, said the newbie attorney-general and cabinet minister.
“The corporation has failed at front-line response on really major claims to the point that people more and more often are hiring lawyers,” Eby told Rob Shaw of The Vancouver Sun in an August 2017 interview.
“So if you roll into ICBC and say the problem is the lawyers, you are cutting off the one avenue people have had to get the rehabilitation and support that they need. So that’s why no-fault is really off the table for me.”
Not for him no-fault, which would take away the right of accident victims to seek redress in court. Instead, they would be compensated on a fixed schedule of costs — so much for this injury, so much for that one.
No-fault remained off the table for Eby’s first 18 months or so, while he tried other means to get control of costs as ICBC lost billions.
Some efforts were successful, others less so. None were enough to bend the cost curve toward the NDP promise of affordability on rates.
Then the lawyers won a victory in B.C. Supreme Court over Eby’s move to curb the use of medical and other experts in accident cases.
The judgement was so sweeping, Eby concluded that an appeal would be hopeless. But instead of blaming himself for the half-baked effort, he pushed back at the Trial Lawyers Association for trying to frustrate some of his other reforms.
“In going after these reforms,” he told reporters, “they need to be careful what they wish for because there won’t be many options left for government after that.”
He then mentioned “no-fault systems” as one option for reducing legal costs. Was no-fault really back in play? Eby was asked as a follow-up. He just smiled and exited the scrum.
The date was last Oct. 31, Halloween. Eby’s attempt to throw a scare into the lawyers was his first public signal that the New Democrats were headed to where they ended up Thursday — with a commitment to no-fault auto insurance.
The flip-flop — and that’s what it is — is all the more surprising because the New Democrats tried to go this route the last time they were in power.
But they were forced to retreat in the face of a well-organized campaign, funded by the lawyers and fronted by advocates for the disabled.
This time will be different, the New Democrats insist. Advocates for the disabled are onside, because the payouts will be more generous and more sustainable. The lawyers will fight back, but the government is better prepared for the campaign.
The government also hopes the public will be more sympathetic, recognizing that the NDP inherited this problem from the B.C. Liberals.
Eby, in announcing the move, even worked up a variation on his now-familiar metaphor of the dumpster fire.
He now has the smoldering dumpster “sitting in front of a burned-out building that hasn’t been renovated in 50 years.” By the next election, look for him to expand the image further to include one of the B.C. Liberals, passed out drunk in the alleyway, while the fire blazes away.
The coming election is one of the keys to the NDP plan to build sympathy with the public. For Eby reckons that all of the savings on litigation will translate into a 20-per-cent reduction in rates in 2021.
Believe it when you get your renewal statement. I expect results will vary, particularly if you and your family were hit with a big increase last September.
Plus all of this is dependent on ICBC — and particularly on ICBC changing its ways from the company that (as Eby admitted two years ago) drove claimants to the courts time and again.
“ICBC is not blameless in this situation,” Eby agreed Thursday.
“We need to be sure people are treated fairly,” said Premier John Horgan.
But it goes beyond teaching the ham-fisted giant to treat its customers like, well, customers.
No-fault was ICBC’s baby from day one. That is where the idea came from when the last NDP government fell for it.
And what better arrangement for a near-monopoly than being able to cut the lawyers out of the picture and pay claimants on a take-it-or-leave-it basis?
But the plan announced Thursday is complicated, ambitious and dependent on myriad outcomes. If the arguments in favour were as overpowering as Eby made out, you wonder why he didn’t do this sooner.
Now, ICBC will really have to deliver. And the troubled corporation has not performed well of late, as even the New Democrats have admitted.
John Horgan: “People don’t have confidence in the company.”
David Eby: “I don’t think it’s a secret that many British Columbians simply don’t trust ICBC.”
Even the current CEO, Nicolas Jimenez, picked up the theme: “It’s fair to say there are some trust and credibility issues that have really been building up over a number of years.”
So what could go wrong with the NDP’s complicated, ambitious no-fault scheme? Based on ICBC’s history, I’d say “plenty”.