That Time I Took On a 6-Week Assignment

I recently learned that changes to Ontario's auto insurance system became effective on July 1. I looked them over and went back eating breakfast.

Why am I writing about this?

I suspect that most people reading my Substack articles don't know that at one time I was the policy lead within the Ontario government on regulating auto insurance. And that I designed a no-fault system for Ontario drivers.

It was 1991, and I was working in the Ontario Workers' Compensation Board where I helped create a centralized policy unit. Somehow in this process I was tagged as a benefits expert. My Executive Director called me into his office one spring day and asked if I would take on a 6-week assignment to advise on benefits compensation. I figured why not. It would be like a 6-week paid vacation.

I never returned from that 6-week assignment which became the another of several unplanned career changes for me.

The next Monday I showed up at the offices of the Auto Insurance Review (AIR) which was created by the leftist New Democratic Party (NDP) government to create a government-run no-fault auto insurance similar to what existed in Quebec. This was a major policy commitment of the newly elected NDP government. I thrown into a multi-million dollar project staffed by a growing number of consultants and public servants.

What did I know about auto insurance? As much as knew about nuclear physics. Absolutely nothing.

The policy team consisted of lawyers and policy analysts who understood insurance but had little experience with a no-fault benefits. I was assigned a desk in a closet that I shared with another person in a mice-infested building in downtown Toronto. This was going to be a lovely claustrophobic 6-week vacation.

By the end of the first day I had a stack of binders to read through to orientate myself on a complex system and to gain some understanding of what the government wanted to create.

So, I did what I always do in these circumstances. I ignored the enormity of the challenge and begin to systematically breaking down the project.

At the end of the 6 weeks, I had roughed out an accident benefit system. After presenting it to the Executive Director and Deputy Minister, I was asked if I would mind extending the assignment. So I stayed for about 25+ years.

A few months later the NDP government backed out of their commitment to take over the auto insurance sector. But they still wanted to introduce reforms. Within days the consultants and much of the staff were sent packing. I moved out of the closet to the biggest vacant office I could find. I continued designing a system for a government insurance agency but to be delivered by private insurance companies. It was a disaster.

A year after implementing the new system, there was a change in government. The Conservatives took over and immediately began to whittle away at the system. I was assigned to dismantle my own system.

Each time auto insurance premiums rose, I was asked to find savings. It didn't matter if costs pressures were caused by car thefts or repairs, the accident benefits were slashed. I left government in 2012, and the process of reducing accident benefits to stabilize premiums continued.

Each time a benefit was eliminated or reduced it became optional. Brilliant politicians tried to convince consumers that they were actually giving them more choice. But it's a product the people don't understand and few people understood enough to make informed choices.

When I looked at the latest reforms (benefit cuts) that became effective this month, I realized that the system was now less generous than what existed before no-fault was introduced 36 years ago but at twice the price. Hey, there's more and more choice!