Dear Danielle Smith: Trash No-Fault & Fire Nate Horner

Today's blog post is based on Mark McCourt's Guest Column in the Edmonton Journal last week. Since Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party won the May 2023 Alberta election, McCourt has authored numerous guest columns on the issue of auto insurance reform: seven in the Edmonton Journal, five in the Calgary Herald and two in the Western Standard.

In November 2024, UCP Finance Minister Nate Horner held a press conference to announce his department’s plans to radically change Alberta’s automobile insurance system. At the presser, Horner referred to a summer 2024 Calgary hailstorm that cost auto insurers a billion dollars in vehicle damage payouts. His proposed solution to ailing insurer profit margins was to obliterate injured Albertans’ rights to compensation from reckless drivers’ insurance companies and implement a no-fault auto insurance scheme (similar to the one British Columbia’s NDP brought in a few years ago), starting in 2027. 

At the press conference, Horner said his ministry’s proposed no-fault scheme is modelled primarily on the Manitoba NDP’s auto insurance system, with the glaring difference being that in Manitoba (as in Saskatchewan and BC), auto insurance is delivered by a single non-profit government entity. Horner advised at the presser that his hope is no-fault auto insurance not only will plump up the bottom lines of private, profit-driven insurance corporations, but also will save the average policyholder “up to” $400 per year in premiums.

Unfortunately, while the average premium at the time of that November 2024 press conference was about $1,800 per year, a recent report from the Automobile Insurance Rate Board predicts that the average premium for the new no-fault product next year will exceed $2,000 per year. 

Let’s be clear: Currently in Alberta, if you are injured by a careless driver, your own auto insurer has full coverage for your vehicle damage as well as immediate “care-first” coverage (regardless of fault) for medical expenses and income replacement. Additionally, you have the right to receive full and fair compensation from the negligent motorist’s insurance company for your pain and suffering and other losses over and above those covered by your own insurer. 

Nate Horner’s unconservative, unAlbertan no-fault plan rips away those rights, replacing them with enhanced “care-first” benefits best described as illusory (since insurers will cut you off long before you receive more than a fraction of those benefits), and premium savings most Albertans wisely believe will never materialize. It’s no wonder polls show most Albertans oppose Horner’s planned no-fault scheme, and no surprise that UCP members at the party’s most recent AGM voted overwhelmingly to reject Horner’s ill-advised plan. 

Half of Canada’s provinces (including Alberta) currently operate under tort law auto insurance systems in which injured victims of reckless drivers are entitled to compensation from the at-fault motorist’s auto insurer for their pain and suffering, income loss, out-of-pocket expenses and other damages. In each of those provinces, the average auto insurance premium is lower than the projected premium the average Albertan will pay for no-fault auto insurance next year, according to the recent AIRB report. Furthermore, the other three western provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and BC) operate under public auto insurance systems, as opposed to a system administered by profit-driven insurance corporations beholden to their shareholders. Average auto insurance premiums in each of those provinces are lower than what Albertans will pay for no-fault insurance in 2027. 

It is time to put a stop to Finance Minister Nate Horner and his “worst possible option” plan to bring in no-fault insurance next year, delivered by the profit-driven automobile insurance industry. Injury lawyers including myself as well as the Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Association have proposed reforms to the existing at-fault insurance system which would leave intact the longstanding civil legal rights of innocent Albertans left in chronic pain due to the negligence of bad drivers, would provide immediate “care-first” benefits to injured individuals regardless of fault, and would actually deliver premium savings to good Alberta motorists. As these cogent recommendations by informed stakeholders have been ignored by Minister Horner, it is respectfully submitted that Premier Danielle Smith should shuffle Horner out of that portfolio and replace him with a Finance Minister prepared to give this important issue another look.

About the author: After practicing law for over 35 years, injury lawyer Mark McCourt plans to retire on his 60th birthday this December so that he can dedicate himself full-time to working with other Albertans Against No-Fault Insurance to help defeat the UCP in the 2027 provincial election -- unless, of course, Premier Smith heeds the good advice succinctly stated in the title of this blog post.