IBC touts Facility depopulation in New Brunswick

The month of March saw 2,000 moved out of the Facility Association, the industry’s pool for high-risk drivers, says the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). The announcement comes on the heels of a the release of a committee report on the potential for public auto insurance in the province.IBC CEO Stan Griffin says the industry is committed to moving 7,200 drivers out of Facility by August, 2004, and the March figures mean the process is ahead of schedule. “Right now, we are ahead of schedule but we will not stop until we reach our goal of 2.5% of the market,” he notes. Currently the percentage is about 3.8%, or 15,000 drivers, down from 25,000 in April, 2003.Griffin gives credit to the province’s brokers and agents, who have found lower-priced options for their clients, and to a hotline set up by the industry which has fielded 2,000 calls in the last month. He also credits government reforms to the auto insurance introduced last summer.Over the next five months, the industry will continue to be “on the hunt” for more than 5,000 additional good drivers who should be insured in the regular market now that the legislative reforms introduced last July have brought a return to stability,” he explains.