Facility Association numbers decline

The number of policyholders in the high-risk Facility Association pool continued to decline in 1999, reports president Stan Griffin at the association’s recently held annual general meeting.

Although the combined ratio of the market rose by 10 percentage points year-on-year to close 1999 at 87% (the highest level since 1996), premium volume measured against that of ten years ago plummeted to an average of $12 million a month compared with an average monthly level of $54 million for 1991. The only provinces which produced a modest rise in premiums were Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. Reduced demands on the Facility Association enabled further staff reductions to the current level of 18 employees.

Since taking up his position at the association last year August, Griffin met with nearly all provincial and territorial regulators and the association’s provincial operating committees. From these discussions, the association identified the need to revise the Facility manual of “Rules and Rates”. An update has since been filed with the Ontario regulator with plans of filing in the other provinces in the near future. The association also established a website this year with the objective of making the rules and rates manual available electronically to its users and the public.