TORONTO — Common auto insurance coverage premiums within the province elevated by 14 per cent between 2017 and 2021, to $1,642, the province’s auditor normal stated Wednesday.

Bonnie Lysyk stated in her annual report that Ontario has the very best non-public passenger auto insurance coverage premiums in Canada, regardless of having one of many lowest charges of automobile crash accidents.

“Regardless of a number of stories offering suggestions over the previous decade to enhance Ontario’s non-public passenger car insurance coverage framework and decrease premium prices, the (regulator) and the Ministry of Finance haven’t sufficiently improved the framework to offer more cost effective non-public passenger car insurance coverage to Ontarians,” Lysyk wrote.

Lysyk stated, for instance, Ontario may observe British Columbia and Saskatchewan’s lead and implement a compulsory certification regime for car restore companies to guard in opposition to fraud.

A government-commissioned report in 2017 known as Ontario’s auto insurance coverage system “one of many least efficient insurance coverage programs in Canada,” and beneficial a number of modifications, together with adopting a “care not money” strategy, exploring higher methods to take care of people who find themselves catastrophically injured, and making legal professionals’ contingency charges extra clear.

Little motion has been taken up to now on the report’s suggestions, Lysyk wrote.

Ontario’s auto insurance coverage system permits injured folks to sue an at-fault driver, who would depend on their insurance coverage firm to pay, and the tort facet raises prices for the system as an entire, Lysyk wrote.

FSRA estimates that about 30 to 35 per cent of settlements paid in private damage disputes between insurance coverage firms and claimants are used to pay for skilled and authorized charges, equivalent to contingency charges, as an alternative of benefiting injured events, the auditor’s report stated.

The Tories promised of their 2019 finances to decrease auto insurance coverage prices, reform the medical assessments course of and make the market extra aggressive, however Lysyk wrote that partly because of the pandemic, there was little progress.

The previous Liberal authorities commissioned the 2017 report at a time when it was underneath fireplace for promising, however failing, to considerably lower auto insurance coverage charges. The Liberals had promised in 2013 to decrease charges by a median of 15 per cent by 2015, however then-premier Kathleen Wynne later admitted it was a “stretch objective.”

By the primary quarter of 2018, not lengthy earlier than the Liberals had been roundly defeated within the election by the Progressive Conservatives, the common fee lower was about 3.3 per cent since 2013.

Lysyk additionally discovered that auto insurance coverage charges range so broadly within the province that the very same individual driving the identical automobile would pay $1,200 a yr in London, Ont., however $3,350 per yr in Brampton, Ont.

The federal government directed the Monetary Providers Regulatory Authority of Ontario to start out reviewing that framework earlier this yr. The auditor stated the preliminary assessment is anticipated to be accomplished in March.

An inner FSRA evaluation has proven that eradicating location as a variable may see Better Toronto Space residents’ premiums diminished by a median of $543, however drivers within the Ottawa space may pay $503 extra, on common.

FSRA has requested the Ministry of Finance for extra powers in regulating auto insurance coverage, nevertheless it informed the auditor the ministry has raised “normal issues” concerning the proposals.