British Columbia New Democrat Leader David Eby says his government would freeze the province’s vehicle insurance rates for another three years if elected on Oct. 24. It’s the latest in a series of escalating campaign promises and revelations around British Columbia’s public auto insurer during the provincial election campaign. Eby, as the attorney general, moved the Insurance Corporation of B.C. to a no-fault system in 2021, after saying the Crown agency was a financial “dumpster fire.” Campaigning in Richmond, B.C., Eby says his government saved the average driver about $500 a year and it’s been able to freeze rates for seven years. A letter sent to B.C.’s trial lawyers and others from Lorne Doerkson, the interim leader for the B.C. Conservatives, said if his party wins the election he’ll repeal the no-fault plan and replace it with a hybrid system to better support people who have been seriously injured. While campaigning in Surrey on Thursday, Doerkson said the current system has serious challenges and that the government has to “get it right for people that have been affected by catastrophic injury.” While Eby acknowledged that the system is not perfect, he says that the Conservative plan would hike the cost of car insurance and lead to more money for lawyers and private insurers. He said prior to the NDP changes, ICBC was spending about a billion dollars a year. “There is lots of work to do, no question about it. But to throw all of it out and to say that the solution is actually to hire lawyers to fight each other in court with British Columbian’s money that they need for other things, I just think that’s completely wrong, and the Conservatives are way off base on that.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2026. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2026.
