The Care-First Fiasco: We Told You So!

If Premier Danielle Smith were honest with Albertans, she'd say "If you think the UCP's Corrupt Care scandal is bad, just wait until you uncover the truth about our Care-First fiasco!" Last November, Smith and her Finance and Affordability Ministers (doing their best Jim Carrey & Jeff Daniels impressions) announced this incompetent government's staggeringly unpopular plan to obliterate 99% of auto accident tort law cases in Alberta and replace the at-fault insurance system with a no-fault scheme they claimed would save Albertans around $400 per year on their premiums. Well gosh golly, it must come as a shock to some in the double-digit IQ set to discover that this trio of putrid politicos weren't telling the truth in their pathetic presser. Now, according to the insurance lobby and hapless Finance Minister Nate Horner himself, auto insurance rates under the so-called "Care-First" system are likely to INCREASE from between $136 to $400 per year.  

Well, we told you so. And we told the UCP government so. Repeatedly. The UCP's imbecilic no-fault scheme, set to start in 2027 (unless this accident-prone government slams on the brakes and reverses course), rips rights away from innocent injured victims of careless drivers without reducing rates for good Alberta motorists. And, as we've pointed out time and time again, no-fault jurisdictions (such as Saskatchewan and Manitoba) suffer higher rates of car crash injuries (perhaps "acceptable collateral damage" in the addled mind of Premier Smith), which inevitably will send the average premium further skyward, particularly when the no-fault product is delivered by for-profit private insurers as per the UCP's preposterous plan. In stark contrast, the McCourt Law Offices plan, outlined to the government repeatedly over the past year and a half, would decrease prudent policyholders' premium payments with traffic safety initiatives coupled with nuanced, conservative reforms to Alberta's current at-fault (tort law) auto insurance system.

Frankly, we are tired of repeating ourselves on this matter, and so anyone who genuinely cares about this important issue is kindly directed to our previous blog posts (and to our firm founder's guest columns in the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald), some of which are linked below.

Sheesh. Peace Out.

Some Previous Blog Posts:

1. Lies, Damn Lies and Insurance Lobby Talking Points

2. Truth, Whole Truth and Nothing But Truth

3. Sprains, Strains and Automobiles

4. Auto Insurance Reform: Made-in-Alberta Solutions

5. Victims First, Premier Smith: Say No to Tory Tort Deform

6. UCP Announces BS No-Fault Scheme

7. No to No-Fault: Here's the Off-Ramp

8. UCP Insurance Deform: Raise Rates, Remove Rights

9. Time to Take Over the UCP and TBT (Take Back Tort)

A Few of Mark McCourt's Guest Columns

1. Alberta needs to reform insurance within the current tort system

2. Will government side with Alberta motorists or insurers?

3. Adopting No-Fault could lead to UCP's election downfall

4. UCP bears the blame for odious No-fault insurance scheme

5. Alberta gov't should make a U-turn on No-fault insurance   

About the author of this blog post: Mark McCourt joins countless conservatives who are right peeved with Danielle Smith's unconservative, unAlbertan UCP government, a number of whom intend to voice our displeasure at the UCP AGM in Edmonton at the end of November. The Premier would be well advised to smarten up without further delay, and fire the clueless, conflicted cousin of insurance lobbyist Doug Horner from this file with all speed.