MPI heads to Public Utilities Board after reporting $159-M profit last year
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/06/2019 (1745 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Manitoba Public Insurance recorded a profit of $159.1 million last year, a $68-million improvement over the previous year.
The increased profit occurred despite higher-than-targeted Autopac claims and a $459 rise in costs per claim. Total claims costs rose by $112.2 million and other expenses increased by $16.6 million.
Those higher costs were offset by higher premium revenues, and a big jump in investment revenues. MPI recorded an increase of $107.8 million in revenues from its various investments. It also gained $1.7 million through the sale of property.
The province’s motorists are expected to learn Thursday whether MPI will seek a fourth consecutive rate increase in 2020. That’s when the public auto insurer is to submit its annual rate application to the Public Utilities Board. It must submit an application to the PUB regardless of whether it plans to seek a rate increase.
Although the Crown corporation has earned a profit in each of the last two fiscal years, it lost money in the preceding two ($85.2 million in 2016-17, and $31.3 million in 2015-16).
For the fiscal year ended Feb. 28, MPI’s claims costs totalled $1.2 billion, the corporation said in its annual report released Wednesday. The value of premiums exceeded $1.3 billion.
MPI paid $85.6 million in commissions to insurance brokers last year, an increase of $5 million.
It also invested $13.1 million in road-safety programs.
In December, the PUB approved a 1.8 per cent overall increase in basic motor vehicle insurance rates for 2019. The increase took effect March 1. MPI had sought a 2.2 per cent increase.
The Crown corporation requested the increase to boost its reserves to absorb any future financial shocks due to unanticipated claims. With the increase, the PUB forecast MPI’s reserves could rise to $280 million next year from $211 million.
As of Feb. 28, MPI had retained earnings of $511.8 million.
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
Larry Kusch
Legislature reporter
Larry Kusch didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life until he attended a high school newspaper editor’s workshop in Regina in the summer of 1969 and listened to a university student speak glowingly about the journalism program at Carleton University in Ottawa.
History
Updated on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 5:07 PM CDT: Full write through