BC Liberal leadership candidates Kevin Falcon and Michael Lee say they will reverse the biggest rate cut in ICBC’s history.

During the BC Liberal leadership debate Monday, Falcon and Lee said they will scrap ICBC’s enhanced care system that put hundreds of dollars in drivers’ pockets and reduced rates by 15%.

Falcon also criticized the successful plan to fix the system his government broke and called the two rebates drivers received over the past year, “stupid little cheques.”

“They bring in no fault. And then they send people back these stupid little cheques, you know, trying to say, ‘oh yes, isn’t this great,” said Falcon.

Lee also promised change that will cause car insurance rates to soar. 

“Well, I spent three and a half years as the justice critic debating David Eby on all of the ICBC reforms that he brought across,” said Lee. “Serious ICBC reform will be done under my leadership of the BC Liberal Party as Premier of this province.” 

The BC NDP government introduced the enhanced care model in 2019 to address crippling losses at ICBC and to reduce rates for drivers, problems that were a direct result of Falcon’s mismanagement. 

When he was Finance Minister, Falcon increased ICBC rates and started a half-billion-dollar raid of the public auto insurers’ bank account over the next three years.

As a result of the changes introduced by the BC NDP under Premier John Horgan, ICBC recorded a surplus of $1.5 billion in 2020-21, reduced rates by 15% and sent rebates to drivers on two separate occasions.

“Kevin Falcon and Michael Lee are competing to see who can make a bigger mess at ICBC. They want BC to return to the days when ICBC was regularly raided like a piggy bank and drivers paid for this mismanagement through sky high insurance rates,” said Richmond South Centre MLA Henry Yao.