Coleman takes ICBC

The Campbell government has managed to destroy or significantly alter three of the most important crown corporations created by WAC Bennett - BC Hydro, BC Ferries and BC Rail. Until now it has not been able to lay a hand on ICBC, created by the Barrett government. Like the other public automobile insurers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, ICBC has been able to outperform the private insurance industry. At Friday's staged cabinet meeting Premier Campbell put BC on notice; stalling on ICBC was about to change. Campbell opened the May 30th staged cabinet meeting with an announcement that "ICBC is being transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Solicitor General."

The government's garbage collector, Rich Coleman, will have the responsibility of doing ICBC in after Collins was defeated by former Pattison executive, now ICBC chair, Nick Geer. Coleman was recently given the responsibility for cleaning up the privatization of liquor distribution after Rick Thorpe proved inadequate for the task. A liquor spokesperson is widely quoted in the media as saying that Coleman has assured the industry there is nothing to worry about as their aspirations for privatization will proceed. Coleman will now be given the job of delivering for the private insurance industry. In a previous staged cabinet meeting, Coleman took on Geer over the operation of ICBC's drunk driving CounterAttack. Now Coleman is in charge of taming Geer who, at the May 7th crown corporations committee meeting, said "The interesting part here is that we're showing increases of 7.3 percent, according to Statistics Canada, which is very close to the increases that were actually implemented by ICBC. In the comparables that were used, we're seeing 59 percent increases in Alberta and between 58 and 70 percent increases in the Maritimes." The Campbell government doesn't want to hear how good ICBC is; they want an excuse for doing it in! BC motorists will be the losers, but who cares when the polls show that Campbell can get away with anything?