Victoria, British Columbia — The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) has unveiled a public ranking system for provincial collision and auto glass shops. The public insurer says the initiative is expected to curb rising claims costs.
In a press release, the province’s Attorney General said the new system was reached in consultation with industry leaders.
“The redesign of the collision and glass repair programs will improve transparency and accountability of repair shops for drivers who get into accidents and need to choose which repair shop they go to.”
According to ICBC, repair facilities will soon be ranked on performance based on various factors and the rankings will be placed on the corporation’s locator webpage. ICBC will begin the work of ranking repairers on Feb. 3 for, and auto glass businesses on Mar. 2 . Rankings will be unveiled to the public when the ICBC has finished collecting and entering the information.
ICBC has lost $2.5 billion in the last two years. According to the insurer, this is the result of rising claims costs and legal fees.
This is not the first time Eby has suggested the frailty of the public insurer was the fault of collision repair facilities. Back in 2017, shortly after the ICBC’s financial situation was described as a “dumpster fire” by Eby, the Attorney General had discussed later debunked claims that widespread fraud in auto repair was costing the province hundreds of millions of dollars.
