Government to receive $778 million in ICBC surplus

The B.C. provincial government will reap the benefits of an estimated $778 million  in surplus income from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia in the next three years, money that some critics say should go back into drivers' pockets.

Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced Wednesday that the surplus income from the optional insurance side of the Crown Corporation would be used as general revenue by the provincial government. In this year alone, $487 million of ICBC revenue is projected to line government coffers.

That doesn't sit well with David Black, vice president for the Canadian Office and Professionals Employees union Local 378, which represents ICBC workers.

"I don't think is a good idea for the drivers of British Columbia, I don't think it's a good idea for ICBC, and it's certainly not a good idea for the workers we represent," Black told ctvbc.ca.

He thinks the money should be returned to drivers in the form of discounted rates, or to ICBC employees through wage increases.

"The government should be last in line for this money," Black said. "It's not the drivers of B.C. who should be subsidizing the provincial government."

Employees of ICBC have been told they won't see any wage increases this year or next, he added. News that the government will be getting extra revenue from the corporation is "a very bitter pill for our members to swallow."

ICBC spokesman Mark Jan Vrem explained that the groundwork for the surplus transfers was laid years ago. The framework for the corporation's current rates was set up by the government in 2002, when the entire structure of the corporation went under review.

"We were in bad shape -- we were virtually broke," he said. "We've just recently managed to build back up (a surplus), and the next step in the core review is to transfer that money back to the government."

"We're hearing a lot of talk of, ‘why don't you lower our rates?' Well, our rates have been going down," he said. He estimated that rates on optional insurance have dropped by 17 per cent in the past five years, while rates on mandatory insurance have held steady.