Old tech slows MPI move online

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This article was published 04/06/2020 (2094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Drivers and auto insurance policyholders will likely have to wait a few more years before they can purchase additional services from Manitoba Public Insurance online.

Ben Graham, MPI president and chief executive officer, told a legislature committee hearing Thursday the Crown corporation’s computer systems are “antiquated” and an investment of about $85 million will be needed to provide a full suite of online services.

He said the corporation has issued a series of requests for proposals to get the system up to speed.

Complicating the process, for MPI, he said, is unlike other insurers, it is responsible for driver testing and licensing, as well as for providing vehicle insurance.

“We’re hoping to get some things online in the next couple of years,” he said.

Graham, accompanied by MPI board chairman Mike Sullivan and senior staff, spent nearly three hours before the committee, fielding questions about online services, the Crown corporation’s finances, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on operations, and MPI’s relationship with the Insurance Brokers Association of Manitoba (IBAM).

When NDP Leader Wab Kinew and his colleagues asked pointed questions about alleged government interference in MPI affairs and the corporation’s ongoing negotiations with brokers about the future of online product sales, Crown Services Minister Jeff Wharton objected.

Wharton noted IBAM and MPI were working with a government-appointed conciliator to sort out their differences.

MPI has produced internal financial models showing the corporation could save millions of dollars in broker fees if its products were available for purchase online.

Graham told reporters afterwards the conciliation process won’t delay the provision of online services.

“The product suite that we’ll provide is not under question. It’s simply who will deliver them,” he said.

Brokers insist they are not opposed to the greater use of online insurance purchases, but such transactions must go through them.

Currently, Manitobans can book a driving test and renew an insurance policy online, but that’s about it.

Kinew said more online services would already be available if government had not interfered in the Crown corporation’s dealings with insurance brokers.

“Had Mr. Graham and the corporation been able to proceed with this process at the speed that they saw fit, I’m very confident that you would be able to do all your business with MPI online, if you should so choose,” he said.

Meanwhile, Graham said Manitobans wishing to take a driver’s test should be able to do so soon. Testing has been stopped during the pandemic.

He also said vehicle owners can expect good news in the coming weeks, when MPI submits its 2021 rate application to the Public Utilities Board of Manitoba. He wouldn’t elaborate except to tell reporters: “I don’t think I’m going to lose any friends… two weeks from now.”

MPI is currently in the process of returning $110 million to policyholders, due largely to lower insurance claims during the pandemic. Last fall, the PUB ordered an overall rate decrease of 0.6 per cent on vehicle insurance policies for the current year.

MPI has not laid off any staff during the COVID-19 crisis, although it has temporarily loaned some five dozen employees to government to help with the distribution of personal protective equipment.

About 250 employees whose work hours have been reduced to 60 per cent of normal have been enrolled in the federal work-share program, with Ottawa topping up their salaries, Graham said.

The CEO said because of measures it’s undertaken in recent years, MPI has never been financially stronger.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca