NDP re-introduces bill to preserve MPI insurance model

The province re-introduced legislation Monday to ensure that Manitoba Public Insurance keeps its current registered owner model by enshrining it in law.

Bill 3, the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Amendment Act, was first introduced in October near the end of the last session and did not proceed past its introduction.

Its aim is to preserve MPI’s current insurance model, “one that has delivered affordable rates in Manitobans for many years,” Matt Wiebe, the minister responsible for MPI, told the legislature.

It would amend the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Act to clarify that any discount from a premium payable to insure a vehicle must be based on the driver-safety rating of the registered owner of the vehicle.

“MPI’s current DSR (driver safety rating) scale awards drivers with positive safety ratings with discounts on their insurance and the higher they are, the larger the discount,” Wiebe said.

“This is what we call the registered owner model. It’s based on the principles of public insurance, which include universally available insurance, a simple rating system and one that encourages road safety and affordability,” he said.

“This is in contrast with the primary driver model which is commonly used in private insurance jurisdictions and would have significant impacts in Manitoba, negatively affecting the affordability of insurance for many.”

The Public Utilities Board, which oversees rate-setting and MPI, has discussed different ways to match driver risk more closely with vehicle and driver premiums, and whether rates should be based on the primary driver of the vehicle rather than the registered owner of the vehicle.

In recent years, the PUB has called on MPI to look into the primary driver model that its own chief actuary determined more accurately reflects risk, one used by private auto insurers across North America. When MPI said it was sticking with the registered owner rating model, the PUB in 2022 directed MPI to develop a five-year plan for the possible implementation of the primary driver model.

The Crown corporation’s 2026 general rate application to the PUB includes a recommendation from the Consumers Coalition for MPI to continue to work toward collecting necessary data for a pricing study for the primary driver model.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca