There is a much bigger issue that needs to be addressed at ICBC than bonuses and executive expense accounts: its surplus.
The provincial government's review of ICBC's bloated management operations released last week has garnered the predictable outrage from the public and has cost CEO Jon Schubert his job.
The B.C. Liberals doubtless chose the dog days of summer for the announcement to minimize political backlash from the sorry story, but it is one that should not be forgotten by voters.
Let's hope questions continue to be asked of the Liberals about the government's intentions for its pet corporation.
ICBC was created as a non-profit entity with government setting the corporation's rate structure and premiums, but in 2003, the Liberals passed that responsibility to the B.C. Utilities Commission, claiming the government would no longer play politics with insurance rates.
The politics were never taken out of the equation, however. What followed is still not widely understood by the public, but essentially, a series of cabinet orders painted the ostensibly arms-length utilities commission into a box by setting profit targets for the company.
In 2006, ICBC's reserves were $1.5 billion; by 2009, they were $3.6 billion, but rather than allowing rates to come down, the government increased its profit targets. The following year, the province grabbed a three-year, $778million "dividend."
If ICBC is to be a profit centre and provincial tax collector, shouldn't that change in mandate be the subject of its own government report?
