It’s a classic Canadian motorcycle story, running almost every season (just like the loud pipes war stories). Once again, Saskatchewan’s riders are unhappy with their insurance rates, especially as those rates are expected to rise in 2021.
In Saskatchewan, passenger vehicle insurance (including motorcycle insurance) runs through SGI, a provincially-run Crown corporation. Most motorists, including most motorcyclists, are covered by no-fault insurance. For years, Saskatchewan’s riders have fought SGI on rate hikes and other policies, such as mandatory riding gear or onboard telematics.
For its part, SGI claims it’s losing money on motorcycle insurance, and the Crown corp constantly asks for rate hikes to cover those losses. Riders, in turn, say those losses are due to Saskatchewan’s no-fault insurance scheme, and that bad car drivers, not unsafe riders, are responsible for the high costs.
SGI’s current proposal would see all insurance groups (cars would be separate from motorcyclists) pay *just enough* to cover their group’s costs for the year. In a year when total car insurance payouts drop for the province, cagers would save money—but motorcyclists would once again pay a hefty hike, as their insurance payouts are more than the money paid in.
So, Saskatchewan-based RAGE (R.iders A.gainst G.overnment E.xploitation—see Facebook page here) is fighting back against SGI’s plans to raise rates again in 2021. RAGE says rate hikes are driving customers away from full-time motorcycle insurance, which is resulting in less money in the insurance fund, making the funding shortage worse in the long term. Here’s what a recent RAGE email campaign had to say:
Continued and escalating Rate Increases in Saskatchewan since 2009 have resulted in Saskatchewan Motorcyclists no longer being able to afford SGI’s Licensing Rates…!!
Accident and Injury rates have dropped by 50% over the last decade and 27% since 2013, yet SGI continues to press Saskatchewan Motorcyclists with more unaffordable Rate Increases.ÂIn response, Motorcyclists have STOPPED the practice of long-term licensing, instead opting for temporary permits causing the Motorcycle Auto Fund Revenue stream to fall to Insolvency Levels…!!!ÂSGI’s answer to this dilemma is to ask the Sask Rate Review Panel ONCE AGAIN for a Rate Increase for Motorcycles, which will have the effect of driving the Motorcycle portion of the Auto Fund to INSOLVENCY faster…!!!ÂSASK MOTORCYCLISTS SAY ENOUGH is ENOUGH…!!
There’s no logic in that thinking. Someone skiing every week-end should pay more insurrance than the one sitting in front of the TV? Wha’t’s the cost of rescuing a sail boat on the St.-Lawrence river? And the cost of a search for missing personnal aircraft…
In a society we pay as a group, for the sicks, the unemployed, the victims of crashes…
It’s not even that. It’s the fact that no-fault insurance is stopping the *real* cost of car drivers’ irresponsibility being assigned to their category.