Woman ‘fed up’ with MPI as vehicle still can’t be driven 16 months after making repair claim

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This article was published 16/01/2024 (628 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been 16 months since Gabrielle Desrosiers last drove her car.

In September 2022 the St. Malo resident noticed her car was stalling frequently and took it to be repaired. The mechanic found evidence of a rodent infestation and told her to make a claim with Manitoba Public Insurance.

Since then, Desrosiers said she’s been pushed from garage to garage and adjuster to adjuster with no end to her claim in sight.

“We pay so much money for our insurance… this needs to be resolved,” she said Sunday. “They tell you to ‘call your adjuster, call your adjuster.’ I’ve never spoken to the same person at MPI once,” she said.

After making her claim in fall 2022, Desrosiers’s 2015 Chevy Malibu was towed to Winkler to be repaired. One month later she went to pick up her car, but as soon as she put the keys in the ignition it stalled again. She left the repair shop empty-handed.

Since then her car has travelled to multiple locations under MPI authorization to be examined, but no inspections or repairs were made, as far as she knows.

“I’m getting thrown from one person to the other because they don’t know what to do. Or they don’t want to deal. I’m fed up,” she said.

The Crown corporation said it cannot divulge any details about Desrosiers’ claim, owing to its privacy policy.

“In the event that additional or new damage/issues are found during the repair process, the owner of the vehicle is required to authorize a repair shop to complete an inspection to confirm it is related to the claim or a separate issue,” MPI spokesperson Kristy Rydz said in an emailed statement Monday.

Desrosiers said she’s still waiting for MPI to prepare that authorization paperwork for her to sign, allowing a mechanic to investigate the claim further.

Desrosiers said she’s happy to authorize the inspection, even if she ultimately has to pay out of pocket, but can’t do so until she is contacted by the public insurer to get the paperwork done.

In an email exchange reviewed by the Free Press, a legal representative from MPI contacted Desrosiers in September 2023 to tell her an adjuster couldn’t inspect her vehicle until a corporation-wide workers’ strike ended. After that, paperwork to authorize the examination could be completed.

The public insurance company’s 1,700 employees accepted a four-year wage agreement and returned to work Nov. 4 after 10 weeks on the picket lines.

“The strike is over,” a clearly frustrated Desrosiers said. “I want my car.”

In its statement, MPI said it is working to clear the existing backlog that accumulated in 2023 as a result of hail-related claims and the strike, and expects its backlog will be cleared by spring.

Desrosiers took MPI to small claims court last March because she felt she had no other options but to sue to have her claim addressed in its entirety.

Desrosiers paid insurance on her vehicle for nearly a year before the court master in her case — not MPI — advised her to put storage insurance on her car while she waited for her claim to be resolved.

MPI is requesting the court claim be dismissed and denies the stalling issue is related to rodent damage, according its statement of defence.

Desrosiers said she is willing to pay to fix her car if the issue is found to be unrelated to rodent damage, but refuses to do so until her claim is settled.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca