It was not many years ago that reporters sat through boring insurance presentations at council and awaited the final figures it would be forced to pay to protect life, limb and property for the coming year. We can remember several meetings where councillors asked how much of an increase to the deductible would save a few dollars on the premium.
In those days, the cost of insurance for a year might run $50,000 to $60,000 for the municipality for the year. Wellington North Township councillors got a real shock this year when their premium climbed 27%. The township will be paying $233,323 for insurance in 2010.
The increase is nearly as big as premiums used to be. The increase will be a factor in the local budget, and anyone who thinks Wellington North is alone in facing huge increases is living in la la land.
There are several major factors to explain why insurance costs are climbing higher than in those good old days. First, consider amalgamation. Mount Forest and Arthur each had one arena. Wellington North has two of them. There are new rules for waste water treatment and protection of water systems. Quite simply, municipalities now own a whole lot more property than they did back when the premiums were in the five digit range.
While they might complain about the likelihood of a one per cent local tax hike just to cover the insurance costs this year, how many residents in Wellington North would be willing to forego protection of their arenas or sewage treatment plants? Very few thinking people, we suspect.
But the biggest difficulty with insurance premiums, as detailed in reporter Mike Robinson’s article this week, is coming from the Negligence Act, and court awards that feature vapour trails of zeros.
In many instances, people who get hurt in accidents bring a lawsuit, even if they are partly or mainly at fault. We have read several cases where victims bring misfortune on themselves by their own actions, but courts impose monster settlements to them anyway – and they, having no ability to pay, cause the taxpayers to fork over the cash.
It bothers us that courts appear to have the attitude that municipalities have deep pockets. They should have more respect for the taxpayers, whose pockets are not so deep these days.
It seems wrong to the average citizen who pays, and we agree. We are not even sure any government could force judges to stop their award overkill. So it is no surprise insurance rates jump. That will continue.
Correction
Last week we cited county council removing Other Business from the county agenda at the behest of meeting investigator Norm Gamble.
He called on Tuesday to explain he was referring to Other Business only in the agenda for the closed portion of county council meetings.
According to Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj, the county took his advice about the closed sessions and decided to remove that line from its public agenda, too. Gamble did agree the county has the authority to determine what will stay and what is eliminated in its public agendas.
