Some news out of Manitoba proves once again that it pays to join your local motorcycle association. We’re not talking about your neighbourhood-unfriendly outlaw motorcycle gang, we’re talking about organizations like the Coalition of Manitoba Motorcycle Groups (CMMG) who’ve just snagged a 45 per cent rebate on 2009-2010 insurance rates for bikers.
The rebate comes as the province’s government-run provincial insurance group, known as Manitoba Public Insurance, or MPI, hands out rebates following a Public Utilities Board ruling that all vehicles, not just passenger cars or commercial vehicles, receive a hefty rebate on their insurance rates.
The CMMG says this is due in part to their lobbying at board hearings. 

MPI has to pay up by May 31 this year, according to the board’s order.

 This isn’t the first time the CMMG has fought public insurance over insurance issues; the Coalition claims their work was responsible for reducing motorcycle insurance rates over past years, for removing 145 motorcycle models from the high-premium sport bike category, introducing optional protective gear coverage, and initiating motorcycle training and awareness programs.
Now, if only Quebec had a motorcyclist group that was as effective…
Greg is 100% right. Factor in this huge surplus of $250 million MPI is refunding MB residents this year and you now know why. For those that don’t get it, THEY ARE CHARGING US TOO DAM MUCH!!!
Fact: there is a huge decline in bikes on the road every year in MB. You would think that MPI would be trying to push motorcycling as a greener alternative but instead have the basic rates over the $1000 for a bike that is over 20 years old. Basic rates without any discount are closer to 1500-1900 and guess what. It is the same cost to insure A BRAND NEW BIKE.
The riding season here? Sorry people, this ain’t Ontario. Crappy weather and actual life, how much ride time does an AVERAGE MB person really get to ride here? 2000K??? So, Instead I will drive my 15 year old gas guzzling truck full time in summer, because to insure that for an entire year is under $400. Sure, I pay more in fuel but a motorcycle is not practical all the time.
I love to ride but I simply cannot afford to insure both. 🙁 🙁 🙁
This province is ANTI-MOTORCYCLING.
Our Provincial governments have allowed the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation to operate unchecked for decades until it took the Public Utilities Board to finally rein them in…a little. MPIC has all but killed the motorcycle industry in Manitoba with its stratospheric premiums for bikes. It costs me over $1600 to insure a 1979 Suzuki GS750, and that’s with a 30% discount for being accident and traffic conviction free for twelve years! And of course we are forced to insure our machines for twelve months of the year even though we can just barely drive them for six months. Why? Because we have had a seemingly unending string of motorcycle-hating bureaucratic microbes in charge of MPIC. But this time they went too far and overcharged motorists and that is the real reason for the rebate.
I pay 1,419.00 for my 2003 Kawasaki 800 cc, I just got a quote today from an Ontario insurance company and if I were to insure my bike there for the same deductible and so on, I would be paying 685.00 so the rebate is not a great deal to me. I would rather pay 700.00 less a year, that would make much more sense…
Yo Felix,
Do you really think for one minute that insurance companies are barely breaking even?
The sad thing is, they’re making record profits when most other industries are hurting.
I don’t begrudge the average company for making a profit, but I really have to draw the line at being raped by premiums that are 80% lower just 10 km south of home.
Cheers
nice to get a rebate but heaven help you if you get into an accident and receive serious injuries.
Yeah, but weren’t their rates even more rapacious than Ontario’s? If so, they have probably reduced their ring of fire quotient to near Ontario levels, which would be something of a hollow victory.
Car drivers in Manitoba got the same rebate % since the refund was ordered as a result of a provincial audit.
Nice plate! I lived in Portage for that decade so that plate brings back memories for sure!
And Ontario.