MPI defends need for higher premiums, posts more than $70M in earnings so far this year

Manitoba's public insurer is defending it's request to boost rates by 2.2 per cent after posting more than $70 million in earnings in the first half of its fiscal year.

MPI says the increase is needed to replenish its reserve fund after dipping into it over the past few years.

"[The increase] translates into about $27 for the average Manitoban, yearly, which we believe is very, very minor," said Brian Smiley, spokesperson for MPI.

The corporation filed for the increase with the Public Utilities Board in June, and will hear from interested parties over the next 3 weeks before a decision is made in December.

This comes after a 2.6 per cent increase in basic rates last year.

On Monday, MPI reported a net income of $72.8 million for the first six months of this fiscal year - $30.5 million more than the same time period last year.

Smiley said even though the corporation showed earnings, those numbers could change once winter hits.

"We're going to be heading into our winter months and we know what can happen there, bad roads, collisions, fender benders," he said.

Smiley said the increase is about anticipating future costs and is for a different financial period than the earnings.

The rate increase will apply to the 2019-2020 insurance year, while the earnings are for this fiscal year.

He said over the past few years the company has had to use its reserve funds to prevent double digit increases, and the increase is intended to restock those funds and keep increases manageable.

"If we have an extremely bad year in terms of winter months claims, hail storms, things of that nature, we potentially could have double-digit increases," said Smiley.

He said costs are also increasing as vehicle technologies change.

"We've noticed that there's been an increase in the costs of repairing vehicles over the last five years. It's grown significantly, and that's because newer vehicles are out there," he said.

"Newer vehicles are equipped with modern technologies, GPS's, lane departures, it costs a lot to fix those type of vehicles."