After cruising along smoothly in the fast lane, oblivious to the perils lurking just around the corner, B.C. taxpayers got a rude collision with reality Monday when a frightening sinkhole opened up in front of them.
We refer, of course, to the “financial dumpster fire,” to use Attorney General David Eby’s memorable words, that ICBC has apparently become.
Not only has the Crown corporation lost $935 million in the first nine months of this fiscal year, but it’s on track to lose even more – $1.3 billion by the end of March.
That’s a far cry from the $11 million that the Liberals projected just before last spring’s election.
The former government surely bears a large chunk of the blame for the twisted wreck that the insurance corporation has become.
Not only did the Liberals siphon profits from ICBC to prop up their government’s own questionable “balanced budget” accounting, they scrubbed parts of a 2014 report recommending changes that would have put ICBC on track because they found them politically objectionable.
Now the NDP has to clean up the mess, with measures that will undoubtedly prove unpopular with many. As Eby wryly noted, if fixes were easy, the Liberals wouldn’t have been cutting pages out of reports to hide the recommendations.
In politics, a dour truth is rarely preferred to an optimistic lie.
Drivers also might want to take a hard look in their mirrors, because some of their own habits – texting while driving, expecting insurers to pick up every multi-thousand-dollar tab on their luxury car parts, and treating minor fender benders as a guaranteed financial windfall, will surely soon be in the government’s headlights.
Fasten your seat belts, everyone. We’re in for a bumpy ride.
