ICBC Crown corporation accountability

[nature boy]

i was under the impression that alberta works the same as bc that way.
i think saskatchewan does too, but i never had to insure a car in either of those places.

[geForce]

In Sask, it's a crown corporation. In AB, it's privatized.
http://www.ibc.ca/en/Car_Insurance/Car_ ... u_Live.asp

(click on the provinces on the right side to see specific info)

[nature boy]

hm, funny, i thought that if i were wrong it would have been with sask, not alberta

[Duncan]

the real funny thing is that monopolies are against the law here... if you're in the private sector...















but it's fine if you're crown... go figure

[nature boy]

i was under the impression that icbc isn't a monopoly because of some loophole somewhere. i forgot where i heard that though, and again, i could be wrong (i have been before haha).

[joel]

[nature boy]

maybe that's the loophole i was talking about? perhaps not that it isn't a monopoly, but it's perfectly legal for it to be one.

[geForce]

[joel]

ok, i overstated a bit when i said the "whole point behind crown corporation" is just to control a sector/market. what i meant is that the intention of establishing a crown corporation is to gain control over a sector or market. and having a monopoly is part of that control. but that's not necessarily the reasoning for wanting control over a specific market or sector.

i would say there are probably a few different motivations for the government to keep ICBC. probably #1 it generates a lot of profit that the government eventually uses to funnel into other areas. yes i agree it seems to be run inefficiently and perhaps, if made more efficient, they could pass additional savings to customers.

but in a privatized sector instead of the government reaping the profits of this "3 bil cash cow", it will be private companies and their shareholders that reap the rewards. so for the government, they will have less money to spend on the services they do provide, so either they are forced to tax more else where to get the money to run the same level of programs or they starting cutting more government programs.

i am sure the private sector would jump all over the bclottery corporation if it were to privatize, and reap those 1.1B it nets for the bc government.

i am not saying icbc shouldn't be privatized, i am just saying there is much more than premium rates that are affected in that kind of move. sure we want cheaper premiums on insurance, but at what costs?

[geForce]

[se7entse7en]

... and then they make some bad investments and have to raise the rates again to cover their a$$e$. What a joke.

[nature boy]

i got a letter yesterday saying that it was time to renew my insurance on the golf. i compared it to the letter for the mazda in august. if we mixed and matched some of the coverage that we have, we'd save 270 bucks a year on insurance. not sure why the brokers didn't tell us that to begin with.

[nature boy]

oh wait, yeah i do. THEY'RE BASTARDS.

[joel]

[geForce]

I'm not saying that ICBC should be run at a deficit in order to give consumers super discounted rates. Yes, I know non-profit doesn't mean not profitable, but the goal of a non-profit is to give consumers the best possible rates which is achieved by being as close to break even point as possible. Any incidental profits should either be put back into the company for required growth and improvements, and any excess over that can then be transferred into the gov't treasury.

In a privatized market, pricing is supposed to be self regulated by competition. It's not only pricing according to what the market can bear, but also according to what the competition is offering. Companies like Rogers and Telus are constantly under pressure by the competition like Mobilicity and Wind Mobile who are offering lower and lower rates... that's how it balances out.

I don't have anything against crown corporations... absolutely nothing. I do have an issue with ICBC who CLAIMS to be a crown corporation but acts nothing like one. They're running a profit, abusing their profits, care nothing about their consumers and now it looks like their front line employees are on strike because they're being mistreated too.

Just a side note - ICBC's surplus cash is enough to completely pay off the new Port Mann bridge. Problem solved, they don't have to increase our property tax anymore.