Saskatchewan Government Insurance has announced plans to cut labour rates paid out to facilities that do not meet equipment and training requirements by 50 percent, beginning April 2020.
The new standards call for businesses to hold I-CAR Canada Gold Class accreditation. The move comes a year after Manitoba Public Insurance announced it would be enacting similar reforms which also incentivized shops securing I-CAR Gold statuses.
According to SGI, there are two tiers that accredited shops can shoot for, with the top two tiers staying at the current rate of $92.68 (this will be reviewed in March of 2021). The top tier requires CCIAP or OEM certification, as well as an electronic 3D vehicle measuring system. Tier two shops do not require OEM certification or electronic 3D measuring. However, all shops will be required to have:
- In terms of training, all accredited shops will need to have completed I-CAR WCS03 on steel welding and BRZ02 on MIG brazing.
- Equipment-wise, all shops will require a three-phase, 10,000 amp, 600 foot/pound squeeze-type resistance spot welder, a MIG pulse welder able to braze silicon bronze, a pressure feed anti-corrosion application equipment and a steel dent removal system.
- All shops must have a garage and commercial liabilities policy of up to $1 million and a two years labour repair warranty.
Starting in March 2021, labour rates for non-compliant facilities will drop from $92.68 to $46.50 an hour.
Last spring, the Saskatchewan Association of Auto Repairers and SGI participated in a series of town hall meetings about the new rules. At the time, plans for a tiered payment system incentivizing I-CAR Gold accreditation had been announced, but the details remained unclear. During one of the meetings, SAAR executive director Tom Bissonnette said some of the smaller shops in rural areas were concerned about the price tag attached to mandated equipment purchases.
“For example, buying a resistance welder is one thing, getting three-phase power to their facility could in many cases double the cost of that welder! Many smaller rural shops do not actually repair many collisions, they generally work on trucks that have hit a deer, change windshields and hail repairs,” Bissonnette told Collision Repair.
According to SGI, this should not cost a facility more than $40,000, a price that some of the attendees at the spring town hall meetings had said would be difficult to justify.
“Can you imagine spending anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000 in training and equipment just to get a lower door rate?” Bissonnette said.
Bissonnette also told Collision Repair that SGI is also giving accredited shops with a one-time cash payout of up to $15,000, a subscription for OEM repaIR procedures available until December 2020, additional time for frame set up and pre-scanning of vehicles in lieu of a door rate increase.
After March of 2021, the door rate may be adjusted for first and second-tier shops—but we will have to wait and see.
Sources close to ICBC have said the Insurance Company of British Columbia is likely to announce similar plans in 2020.
