On April 1, 2009, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario will submit their five-year review of auto insurance in the province, as required by Bill 198. The review aims to focus on enhancing protection for automobile insurance consumers and ensuring ongoing product affordability and availability.

Interested parties were asked to identify issues and concerns and to provide suggestions that will improve Ontario’s automobile insurance system, through a written submission process.

In order to appreciate the review, it’s best to understand that motor vehicle accident compensation has gone through three distinct periods in Ontario.

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The first is the Tort or Negligence system that remained in place until 1972. Under this system, only innocent victims of motor vehicle accidents were entitled to compensation.

Then, from 1972 to 1990, no-fault benefits became a compulsory part of the Ontario automobile insurance package. This period can be considered the add-on no-fault era because tort rights remained intact despite the addition of enhanced no-fault benefits.

In 1990, the Ontario Liberal government enacted the first no-fault regime with Bill 68.

For the first time ever, tort rights were restricted in order to facilitate enhanced no-fault benefits for all accident victims, regardless of fault. This fundamental shift in compensation represented an exchange of benefits: restricting the right to sue for some innocent accident victims in exchange for enhanced no-fault benefits for all injured individuals.

The introduction of Bill 68 ushered in the threshold/no-fault regime. It is the situation we currently use in Ontario and has been tweaked three more times in the 20 years since inception: In 1994 it was changed by the NDP government; then by the Conservative government in 1996; and changed again by the Conservative government in 2003. Some argue the initial exchange that was introduced in Bill 68 was upset, particularly with the introduction of the last two regimes, Bills 59 and 198.

Source: Access to Justice Through the Lens of Insurance Reform, 1990-2008, post-doctoral thesis by Joseph Campisi.

Joseph Campisi Jr., B.A., M.A., LL.B., LL.M., Ph.D. (Candidate), personal injury lawyer, Carranza, Barristers and Solicitors