Manitoba seniors, consumers groups say proposed MPI legislation would enshrine unfair insurance regime

Manitoba·NewGroups representing Manitoba seniors and consumers say new legislation proposed to govern automobile insurance will leave older, safer drivers facing an unfair financial burden. Government says bill promotes affordability; critic says it undermines fairness effortsBartley Kives · CBC News · Posted: Oct 08, 2025 8:04 PM EDT | Last Updated: 25 minutes agoThe NDP government has proposed a new bill to enshrine Manitoba Public Insurance’s vehicle-owner insurance premium model. (Jaison Empson/CBC)Groups representing Manitoba seniors and consumers say new legislation proposed to govern automobile insurance will leave older, safer drivers facing an unfair financial burden.On Monday, the NDP government introduced Bill 49, the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Amendment Act, which seeks to enshrine an existing auto-insurance model where premiums are based on the driving record of vehicle owners, as opposed to the actual motorists behind the wheel.Matt Wiebe, the provincial minister responsible for the Crown insurer, described the bill as an affordability measure.”We know here in Manitoba since the beginning of MPI, we’ve had the registered-owner model, and it works well,” Wiebe said Monday at the Manitoba Legislative Building.He suggested basing insurance premiums on the owner, not the driver, benefits teenagers and newcomers to Canada.“It allows them to have access to insurance and at an affordable rate.”If the legislation passes, it would place the province at loggerheads with the Public Utilities Board, Manitoba’s independent insurance regulator, said lawyer Katrine Dilay, who represents the Manitoba branch of the Consumers’ Association of Canada and the Manitoba Seniors Equity Action Coalition.The utilities board initially instructed MPI in 2017 to change the way it calculates insurance premiums in order to reflect the risks placed on the public insurance system.The board then issued three subsequent orders to prepare a transition toward a driver-based insurance model. To date, MPI has not prepared to make these changes.Dilay, who works for the Public Interest Law Centre, said it is unfair to place the insurance premium burden on vehicle owners instead of the people behind the wheel.“When people are registering vehicles to a person who’s not actually driving the vehicle, we’re seeing distortions in the way that insurance premiums are set,” Dilay said Wednesday in an interview.“The consequence is that our safest drivers — those people who are higher on the driver safety rating scale — are paying more than what their risk is to the system.”Dilay said a transition to a driver-based insurance model would not raise any more money for MPI, but would simply shift the burden of risk to the riskiest drivers.“If we can better tie insurance premiums to the risk that drivers bring to the system in the end, we might be reducing claims cost in the long term, which then would promote affordability in the long term,” she said. Tara Seel, a spokesperson for MPI, claimed Manitobans aren’t interested in changing the registered-owner model, which she described as a “straightforward and user-friendly process for insuring vehicles.” Seel said changing the insurance model “would be very disruptive for customers, MPI and its partners.”WATCH | Consumers, seniors say insurance regime is unfair:Consumers, seniors groups say new MPI bill maintains unfair insurance regimeManitoba’s NDP government is proposing legislation that it says will keep Manitoba Public Insurance premiums affordable, but an advocate for consumers and seniors says the proposed law overrules an order to base insurance premiums on the driver, not the owner, of a vehicle.ABOUT THE AUTHORBartley Kives joined CBC Manitoba in 2016. Prior to that, he spent three years at the Winnipeg Sun and then 18 at the Winnipeg Free Press, writing about politics, music, food and outdoor recreation. He’s the author of three books – two of them Canadian bestsellers – and the winner of a Canadian Screen Award for reporting.