Western Standard - Will Alberta's new insurance model cost more than it pays？

00:00:00.960 Good day everyone. My name is Leah Muschett. I am a reporter here at the Western Standard.

00:00:05.680 Today we're going to be talking about Bill 47, also known as the Care First Insurance

00:00:10.560 System, which will be implemented by 2027. This system will regulate Albertans' right to sue

00:00:17.600 at-fault drivers, having to instead answer to a tribunal funded by the insurance industry and

00:00:23.120 appointed by the government. How will Albertans be impacted, you may ask? Well, today I have Ricky

00:00:28.960 Bega here with me, CEO and Managing Partner at Crash Lawyers, who will help me answer some of

00:00:34.240 these questions as well as others. Ricky, what will you, what do you think will be the biggest

00:00:39.920 impact on Albertans if this system were to be implemented? Well, good afternoon Leah. Thank

00:00:45.440 you very much for having me. So Care First is a no-fault system which will be delivered by a

00:00:50.400 private insurance company. This will mean that someone injured in an accident will lose their

00:00:55.440 rights to sue and seek compensation should they be injured by a bad driver. There will be zero

00:00:59.920 accountability for bad drivers causing us harm and all the power under the Care First system will

00:01:05.440 be on behalf of auto insurance companies. Okay, well I guess following that, how is like the current

00:01:14.240 system Alberta different from the All Care system and what is like the market like right now in Alberta

00:01:20.640 for auto insurance? Yeah, so I think you probably mean the Care First system. So the current system

00:01:27.840 is basically a tort system which means if someone wrongs you and causes you injury, you have the

00:01:32.720 right to seek compensation against them or sue them to make you whole. Things like pain and suffering,

00:01:38.160 loss of income, future cost of care are all things under the current system we're able to obtain for

00:01:43.040 our clients. And under the new system, the Care First system, it's going to be a private insurance

00:01:48.400 company that will get to decide if you get to be, if you get any compensation at all,

00:01:53.440 how much treatment you get and how long you get the treatment for. So essentially the insurance

00:01:57.760 company will get to be the judge, jury and executioner on how Albertans claims are ran.

00:02:02.640 And, you know, I think everyone can say, you know, if you ever had an experience with insurance,

00:02:07.520 you know, you'll note that they love accepting premiums month over month, but the second that they need to

00:02:12.080 pay out or you need them for something, they're nowhere to be found. So it's a bad system for Albertans.

00:02:17.360 Hmm. Okay. Well, the next question I would have for you then is,

00:02:22.560 what is the, like, why is the provincial government trying to do this system? And

00:02:28.560 is it, like, will it be effective? Is there examples in other provinces of implementing this?

00:02:34.080 And was it?

00:02:35.680 Well, that's a good question. Well, you know, I think to speak about the last question there, you

00:02:40.480 mentioned, you know, how is the market really like for auto insurance companies? And the best way I can

00:02:45.280 describe it is that they're thriving. There's a falsity going around that that insurance companies

00:02:50.080 are leaving Alberta, and that they're hurting and that they need help. But this is so far from the

00:02:54.800 truth. You know, I asked anyone, why is it that Saskatchewan General Insurance, which is a government

00:03:00.320 run insurance company from Saskatchewan, it's a no fault province as well, they have elected to come

00:03:06.560 to Alberta since 2006 to sell premiums, and have never left. You know, I tell anyone that if it

00:03:12.560 was so bad, why would a no fault province insure come to our province to sell policies? You know,

00:03:18.640 I also say that, you know, if the state of affairs are so bad, in May of 2027,

00:03:24.320 DFINITY Insurance bought travellers insurance for $3.3 billion. Is it because they want to lose money?

00:03:32.000 I don't think so. Hmm. Okay, yeah. Interesting. Then, uh, then the touch on basically that,

00:03:39.120 you know, your, your, your all of question, which was, you know, why is the provincial government

00:03:42.480 trying to do this with our system? Um, I think it's simple. They're, they're trying to bring in

00:03:46.560 a no fault system where, you know, Albertans rights to their own property will be lost. Um,

00:03:51.200 they were initially telling us that they want to bring in this new system, because it will come with

00:03:55.520 savings of up to $400 a year for the average Albertan. Um, but we realize now that that's

00:04:01.360 false, you know, Aaron Sutherland, who's the vice president of the Insurance Bureau of Canada,

00:04:06.000 has publicly come out and said that this plan will save no money for Albertans.

00:04:10.400 So now Albertans are essentially stuck with a lose, lose, lose, uh, situation where we're losing our

00:04:16.000 rights. Insurance cream room is going to go higher. And now there's no savings to be had at all.

00:04:20.960 It really begs the question why the UCP is doing this in the first place. Um, you know,

00:04:25.040 I think there's also a ton of history from, from other provinces and states in America that have

00:04:29.680 implemented no fault insurance. It is very, very short term savings. Um, as we know, an obliteration

00:04:35.680 of, of our rights, uh, only for premiums to go back up. So it's just, it's just a bad plan altogether.

00:04:41.680 Okay, Ricky. So another question I have for you is, are there similar systems in place in other

00:04:47.520 provinces and were they at all effective? Yeah. So, uh, Saskatchewan and then Manitoba both

00:04:54.880 have, uh, no fault systems as well. Uh, BC's no fault system, I think is probably the one that was

00:05:00.640 the most newly implemented in this country. Um, and I, and I tell everyone, all you got to do

00:05:05.840 just Google no fault insurance, British Columbia. Uh, you will see hundreds, if not thousands of

00:05:11.440 horror stories coming out of that province. Uh, in BC, the no fault system, they called it enhanced

00:05:17.440 care in Alberta. They're calling it care first, but they're all fancy terms for the same awful policy

00:05:23.760 of no fault insurance. Okay. Yeah. It makes sense. Um, okay. The next question I have for you then,

00:05:30.880 it sounds from what you're saying, like kind of takes away, um, Albertans rights in a way.

00:05:39.200 So elaborate further on that. Is that the case? Yes. So for 99.9% of people, their rights will be taken

00:05:47.840 away. You know, the government is trying to slide this, this little unique wording into the

00:05:52.640 legislation, which says that, you know, someone will still retain the right to sue only if the

00:05:59.120 at fault driver is convicted of the criminal offense. And this is, if you really think about

00:06:03.760 it, a very odd condition. Um, you know, this threshold has no connection to how badly you hurt.

00:06:10.400 If you're paralyzed, for example, by a distracted driver who wasn't charged, you're out of luck.

00:06:15.040 You're not, you're not getting any compensation and your rights are gone. But if you suffer a

00:06:19.360 minor scratch on your hand in a DUI, for example, in the person's charge, then you might retain some

00:06:24.160 rights. You know, victims are compensated, not based on their injuries, but on whether the offender

00:06:29.520 faces charges. You know, the example I can give you is, is what happens in the very snow months,

00:06:34.240 uh, the snowy months, sorry, of Alberta. There's, there's hundreds of accidents a day.

00:06:38.480 You're telling me that just because a cop doesn't show up to the scene, to the accident and issue a

00:06:42.800 ticket, my right to see compensation from a bad driver are gone. Um, it doesn't make sense.

00:06:47.520 Hmm. All right. Okay. Well, um, so will this all, not all care, but, um, anyways,

00:06:57.680 will this system bypass, like, how did it bypass, like, cause it's in a tribunal now,

00:07:03.120 like it'll be answering to like a private tribunal. So how did it like bypass, like,

00:07:08.800 how is this allowed so easily to be implemented? Basically is my question.

00:07:13.760 Yeah, well, you know, uh, I'm not a constitutional lawyer, so I can't really comment on the legality

00:07:18.400 of what the government is doing, but I can say that it is, you know, something that's morally wrong

00:07:22.880 and an unconservant methodology. Um, you know, every province which has adopted no-fault insurance is

00:07:28.640 usually adopted when a socialist party is in power. You know, I, I guess our government can make this

00:07:33.360 change so easily because they have a majority government and they can put through whatever plan they want,

00:07:37.280 no matter how good, bad, um, they can just push through whatever they like. If you look at the

00:07:42.160 legislation bill 47 itself, um, it says, you know, it says that you're not allowed to go to court.

00:07:48.640 You'd have to go through their care first tribunal. That tribunal does not have to follow normal court

00:07:54.000 rules, court processes, and the decision cannot be reviewed or reversed in court. Um, you know,

00:08:00.000 I think there's, there's already, you know, an article that came out that says British Columbia has a

00:08:05.520 similar tribunal and 91% of the time that tribunal just sides with the insurance company. So,

00:08:12.880 you know, a regular Joe would have to appeal the tribunal's decision and come up with all

00:08:17.920 the paperwork and, and, and try to go through this tribunal without a lawyer's help. And that's why

00:08:22.960 they lose 91% of the time in British Columbia. So, um, it's just unfair. And in, you know, I feel like

00:08:29.120 they need to backtrack what they're not. So, um, um, as you were saying, like, uh, those cases in

00:08:34.720 British Columbia, so you like in the text that you gave me, you were talking about how like it's

00:08:41.520 funded, it's going to be funded by the insurance companies, like the tribe, you know, so that's the

00:08:46.320 case also in British Columbia, like it's funded by the insurance companies as well.

00:08:51.680 Uh, correct. So British Columbia is a, is a, it's a public insurance company, which is the ICBC.

00:08:58.640 So British, that's a, that's a public insurance company. Uh, you know, if anything, Alberta's

00:09:03.520 system that they're trying to implement is worse because it's a private for-profit insurance company

00:09:09.920 that's going to get to be the judge, jury and execution on how your claim is read.

00:09:13.440 So, you know, obviously private insurance companies care about the dollars and cents.

00:09:17.280 They care about their shareholders. They care about profits. They will have every reason to cut you off

00:09:22.640 before you're, before you're healed. They'll have every reason to deny your treatment.

00:09:26.720 And, um, you know, because they have exclusively taken, you know, your, your rights to counsel out

00:09:31.680 of the system, you'll have no one in your court to fight for you. You know, I, the best example

00:09:36.400 I can give you is, is I currently have a client who was a doctor who's an ophthalmologist and within a

00:09:42.000 year, he was cut off by the insurance company. Luckily he had need to fight for him, fight for

00:09:47.600 his rights. And I was able to get his treatment reopened up again or opened up again, I should say.

00:09:53.200 And, um, if the second you take counsel and lawyers out of the picture, then it's just going to be,

00:09:57.360 you know, regular joke going against a billion dollar, uh, insurance companies and billion

00:10:01.520 dollar lawyers of the insurance company, which is just a, it's an unfair balance of power.

00:10:05.360 Hmm. Okay. Yeah. So basically what you're saying, what I got is it might be worse. Yeah. Then like

00:10:12.320 the BC system, just because now it's even like they have more interest in like saving more money,

00:10:17.600 their private companies. I anticipate that it will be worse. Yes. Okay. Well, also I have another

00:10:25.600 question for you, which is if Albertans don't want this to come to pass, what can they do to help stop it?

00:10:32.400 Yeah. So, um, you know, I'm, I'm a member of a group which is called Albertans Against No Fault

00:10:38.560 Insurance. Uh, the, the acronym is ANFI, A-A-N-F-I. Uh, there's a website that you can go to, it's called

00:10:45.120 ANFI.com. And, uh, under that website, you can contact your MLA, voice your concerns. Uh, we have a

00:10:51.840 petition with close to 6,000 signatures already as well. So just hoping that we can show the government

00:10:57.360 that this is a bad plan. Albertans don't want it. They want to, they want to keep their rights. Um,

00:11:02.000 you know, should they be injured by a bad driver in an accident? And, um, you know,

00:11:06.560 the, the best thing you can do is just, you know, reach out to government, reach out to MLA and tell

00:11:10.640 them that you don't like this plan. And, and, and I feel like with enough pressure from the regular

00:11:15.440 public, um, we can make a change of the space. Okay. That makes sense. Well, um, thank you very much.

00:11:22.960 That's all the questions I have for you today. I really appreciate you being with us today and joining.

00:11:28.480 And yeah. So if you guys liked this video and you would like more, we have a lot more on our channel,

00:11:35.760 so you can definitely subscribe to the Western standard YouTube channel, as well as subscribe

00:11:42.000 to our, obviously our actual website, which is $10 a month. So thank you very much again.

00:11:48.960 And yeah. Goodbye. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye. Thank you.

Western Standard - August 27, 2025

Will Alberta's new insurance model cost more than it pays？

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