Pembridge Cuts Back Business in Alberta

While insurer Pembridge is not withdrawing from the Alberta auto market, the company is scaling back its business there.

In interview, Pembridge CEO Bob Tisdale said the decision, which has resulted in a significant number of employee lay-offs, was a difficult one to make. “This certainly wasn’t our first choice,” he says.

The decision followed last-minute changes to the auto insurance product in Alberta – while companies had been preparing for the October 1 rollout of the new “premium grid”, on the eve of its implementation the government made changes to the grid which would have capped “almost every single” high-risk policy in Pembridge’s books. “We cannot understand why the worst drivers in the province are going to get premium reductions… Why would a person with an impaired driving charge see rates go down 50% while a person with a clean record will only see a 5% reduction?”

The company has been in the province for 19 years, and Tisdale stresses that it will remain there offering standard and preferred business under the grid. He also notes that many of the other changes being made in the province, specifically to address rising claims costs, were welcomed by the company.

Some Alberta employees will be moved over to handle the Pafco brand, launched in Ontario to respond to Facility Association depopulation.