50 Replies to “SGI Motorcycle Rate Increase”

  1. Let me get this straight. Is there only Government insurance available? Can’t you shop around for better rates? If so, isn’t that Communist? Is Canada a free market economy or is it a closed controlled economy society like North Korea?

  3. Yes, it’s like North Korea. Dear Leader Tommy brainwashed the citizens so thoroughly, they still think a govenment monopoly is the solution to high insurance rates.

  4. I find it ironic…perhaps moronic…that collusion between businesses..such as price fixing is illegal (illegal restriction of trade)….and yet here in morontario insurance companies are allowed to maintain registries/shared data sets with impunity.
    Over the last few years, McSquinty el al, compelled insurance companies to insure 3 months after policy expiration. As a sop these companies were allowed to charge and collect premiums for that “grace period”.
    When in the past a simple telephone call was all that was necessary to cancel insurance….now it seems WRITTEN notice is now required. Some folks changed companies, made a call to the old company, then 3 months later got a letter….hi we cancelled your policy for failure to pay and you owe us XXX. Then their new insurer hiked their premium bigtime, under threat of cancellation, because they had a record of cancellation for failure to pay. And it’s all legal.
    In some cases, seniors etc retiring an old vehicle, disposed of it made the call to their broker…..then found that a years insurance for a replacement vehicle exceeded the cost of the replacemant.
    Check your policies…last page, bottom…a tear off form….which you must sign to cancell. Hotel California….

  5. When the city announces a massive tax increase, they come back days later saying, “We’ve burned the midnight oil, scoured our accounts and we are able to get by on a much smaller increase.” We feel that we’ve dodged a bullet and happily pay. I predict that this will happen with the SGI increase. Keep fighting for private insurance competition.

  6. In the PRC I pay $100 a year for liability on two bikes. One is 1137cc the other is 1260cc and I ride all year.

  7. Sasquatch: First the government legislates to ‘protect’ us. Then the regulatory boards and companies collude to make rules. Eventually both parties screw over the consumer.
    What else is new.

  8. In Florida, for the government mandated minimum public liability, I pay $25.00 mo. for a 2009 Chevy Siverado pickup truck.

  9. Quit whining. You’ve never been insured in Ontario I guess.
    I used to pay $100/month liability only insurance on a minivan for many years.
    Last year insurance was jacked to $150/month and renewal for 2013 came as $180/month.
    This is a driver with no at-fault accidents and 2 claims in entire life – one for damage from bricks falling from a trailer and another for being rear-ended when sitting stationary in a traffic jam.
    Your laments are pathetic.

  10. Vancouver Island, ICBC rates
    2008 Ranger base model, 43% discount, $1070 year, includes collision, comprehensive,
    and 2 million liability. 2010 Versa same coverage and discounts $1100 year.
    mid island mike

  11. This is why I always laugh in the face of Liberal voters who think guns are the only thing that government will ever confiscate. “Public Safety” can justify literally anything.
    Its entirely consistent with Commie behavior to confiscate private vehicles and stick everyone on public busses. Only “important” people need a car, everyone else can wait for the bus.
    Hey, if it saves just one life…

  12. We also have high government insurance rates in Manitoba for motorcycles .
    What I find ironic is that most motorcycle accidents are caused by CAR DRIVERS .
    Somehow that never gets mentioned.

  13. Wow and you only bet to ride a few months every year. Oh wait with gobal warming you’ll get to ride yearround so the premiums should go up. I’m giving up my ride this year due to health issues but still, my premiums were only $90.00/month here in BC. Of course when the dippers win the next election I expect them to skyrocket, along with my car insurance. Oh to have choice…

  14. Unbelievable!
    In the southern US, I pay $235, full insurance, on a Touring Cruiser that I ride 12 months a year.
    The comparable rate for my bike in Saskatchewan is currently $1,492, and going UP to $2,439.

  15. I’m quite attached to my HD, and will insure it anyways. What’s tough is that there really isn’t a way to protest. There’s no way I’ll vote for the other guys.
    For the sake of argument, I’d like to see a comparison with an open market system. I’m not sure that insurance would be cheaper.

  16. What’s the fine for riding an uninsured motorcycle in Saskatchewan? Answer: $580.00
    But it doesn’t end there. The bike gets impounded – add another $100 for the tow. Add some $20 – $25 per day impound fees. Add another $100 to have your appeal to release the bike heard by the Highway Traffic Board. They and only they decide how long the bike stays in impound. Repeat offenders tend to have their vehicles stay in impound longer.

  17. so, I ride a 2004 1000cc Ducati ST, “Sport Touring” bike. My new rate at SGI would be $4290 a year. I could theoretically trade it in for a brand new 1200 cc Ducati, “touring bike” with nearly 60 more horsepower, faster, quicker by a significant amount and still pay only just over $2500. Where is the logic in that? these bureaucrats have no, zero, understanding of motorcycles. Hit the risky drivers sure and surcharge them for careless behaviour and accidents but why not bump up the rates of 4 wheel drivers who hit motorcycles? makes the road safer for riders in the long run.

  18. It’s bit late to be blaming Tommy Douglas,he’s been dead a long time.
    Same situation as here in BC when the NDP brought in ICBC in 1972,but the succeeding Socred and Liberal governments just love that $100 million or-so windfall and the lovely big government-voting bureaucracy that goes with it.
    If Wall is a real free enterprise supporter,this monster is the first thing he should have slain.
    Last time I insured a bike, 1980’s, and I had a 900cc bike, the insurance cost was very reasonable.
    But $4000 a year to insure a bike! Ridiculous.

  19. 454guy, that’s not whining, it’s crying. The higher end sport bikes are looking at about $275 a month MORE than they paid before. From $195/month to $472/month. Consider that a sports bike may get used 5 months of the year in Saskatchewan and you are really paying over $1100 a month for the privilege of riding that motorbike.

  20. I looked up the price of a new 600cc Yamaha – about $13,000. The proposed insurance rate is $3800. When you’re paying about 30% of the purchase price of a vehicle just for the right to drive it, something is very wrong.
    About 40 years ago, I was going through a green light in the middle of the afternoon on a sunny day, when a driver coming the opposite way decided to use me as a hood ornament. He got charged with an improper left turn – a $74 ticket in those days – and I’ve been scarred for life (the skin graft on the knee where he hit me still opens up if I get too vigorous while on hands and knees). So, of course, I should pay higher insurance rates!

  21. Mr. Cartmell is saying that motorcycle riders premiums are being subsidized by other drivers. They probably are as the pool of m/c riders is small. A brief look at the rating proposal indicates that SGI has decided that m/c premiums must generate enough revenue to break even on claims costs.
    You should ask Mr. Cartmell, Kate, if SGI still subsidizes premiums for auto drivers aged 16 to 20, especially male drivers. The answer, I believe, is that they do.
    Accident frequencies and claims costs for the small pool of these drivers are as much as several times those of drivers 25 years old and over. Will SGI propose similar large premium increases for them?

  22. Brad Wall will get us there, sometimes with baby steps. SGI will likely eventually back out of motorcycle insurance and allow private insurance competition. In the meantime I’d rather not be subsidizing motorcycle owners insurance premiums with higher than needed premiums on other vehicle types.

  24. For years now I’ve been wanting to get a cheap bike for the summer, but the insurance has always been too high. Screw it, this year I’m riding illegally.

  25. Brad Wall will get us there, sometimes with baby steps.
    Nope. Freedom is never regained incrementally, only in big leaps.

  26. mike “Vancouver Island, ICBC rates
    2008 Ranger base model, 43% discount, $1070 year, includes collision, comprehensive,
    and 2 million liability. 2010 Versa same coverage and discounts $1100 year.”
    In Alberta with somewhat similar vehicles I pay $1,200 for full coverage without glass – about half as much. I moved to Manitoba for a few years many years ago and was thoroughly hosed. I though the whole point of government insurance was saving money not building communist empires.
    I am sure motorcycle drivers in Saskabush are paying for all the damage done to them by cars. It is not a liability based system.

  27. Yes, you are whining. Riding motorcycle is a pleasure, not necessity.
    When I cannot get around the city for work w/o paying 2x what I paid 5 years ago, there is something wrong with that. Should we start getting rid of those who create liability? Like those new brown drivers from god knows where who simply are refusing to abide by highway traffic act?
    I am sick of being tailgated by young people wearing turbans on a highway, but having to tailgate the women wearing sari on the city streets.
    Sick of them being simply unable to leave the intersection on the left turn as long as there is at least one oncoming vehicle in sight.
    Sick of them slowing down in front of the green lights to look left and right – this is India thing, where no one slows down for the red lights so everyone has to check first.
    Sick of turban wearing people jaywalking.
    One day I will adopt their own practice of driving with a hockey stick on the passenger seat and beating everyone interfering with my driving.
    The government imported hundreds of thousands of them into Canada and now our insurance rates are 2x what they were. The newcomers must be paying for our insurance, not us for theirs. Mass deportations anyone? I am all for it.

  28. When I moved from Calgary to Vancouver a decade ago my insurance for my 74 honda cb750 went from 154 per year to 65 per month. The only result from the government issuing insurance is high rates low payouts and a general up yours from the insurance company.

  29. Why is the government in the insurance business in the first place. This liability insurance for private property – none of their business. Are thy competing with the open market private insurers or is this another commie monopoly like state liquor monopolies or wheat marketing monopolies?
    I’m sure if private insurance is consistently more expensive than government insurance it’s because the state is subsidizing costs/losses by high risk riders with general tax revenues. Actuarial stats don’t lie and the private market is unforgiving of gougers and cheats. There are lots of companies out there willing to give premium discounts to good riders.
    Maybe bikers should get off the government dole and pay the real risks of riding.

  30. Think an interesting comparison would be to see what SGI insures the same bike for in Alberta where they compete in the private market

  31. It looks to me, from here in Alberta, that SGI is funding its pension and early retirement programs on the backs of its citizens that have no other option for insurance.
    Where the spokesperson from SGI says that rates for injury costs are high, does SGI pay for medical costs outside of Sask Health?
    I think they need to open the books to the public. Not just the final figures, but the costs of employing people to shuffle paper around for 30 years, and then live with the rest of the province funding their retirements for another 30 years…
    It smells. Especially knowing that in Saskatchewan, that nobody rides for 5-6 winter months.
    Call your MLA. Phone the office, walk into the office, complain, and ask for proof that this is going to something besides the SGI retirement fund. Noting that most privately employed folks work until they’re 65, soon to be 67…

  32. marc – its much cheaper to cancel your bike plates off season and just insure the bike with an “in storage” type coverage.

  33. I was assuming that SGI doesn’t allow that sort of thing, or that if your + $10,000 for example, bike was stored in the garage and everything caught fire, you’d be limited to whatever the garage coverage was, possibly a 10 cents on the dollar type of settlement for coverage of assorted items.
    But I don’t know. If there’s only one insurance company in the province for this, they may be on to this sort of thing.
    By the way, SGI operates in Alberta, they seem to like their monopoly in Sask, and offering competition to other jurisdictions.
    In fact, they’re hiring! So I suppose they’re making money here, and offering competitive rates outside of their somewhat socialist haven of Sask. Really Mr. Wall, what’s going on?
    http://www.wowjobs.ca/careers-sgi+canada+insurance+services-jobs-in-Edmonton+AB

  35. Down here in the (still) free country where I can buy insurance from at least a dozen companies who compete with each other for my business, I pay about $700 per year for complete coverage on two Harleys, a 1992 and a 2003. Under your old system I would pay about $3000 per year for the same bikes, under your new system I would pay about $5000 per year. Another reason not to move back to Canada.

  36. Woah, just finished reading the comments and there are seriously people who think that motorcycle riders are being subsidized by everyone else? Guess what guys? 70 to 80% of all motorcycle accidents are the fault of the car driver. That means that 70 to 80% of the cost of motorcycle accidents is the fault of the car drivers (or maybe more since it seems likely that you will get more seriously injured if you are run over by a car than if you drive off a road into a field by yourself).
    Your premiums are four to seven times higher than mine here in the state of Washington, you are not being subsidized, you are being screwed by the government as well as being knocked off the road by ignorant car drivers.

  37. and keep in mind Calvin A, that the rates listed by SGI are per vehicle / motorbike. That is, even though you may own 4 or 5 insured vehicles, they’re insured separately regardless of how many you can drive or ride at at time.

  38. Personally I’d look into dual citizenship. Or at least a friend or relative who will “rent” you a place to call home.
    Mind you, I am a bit surprised that the only “have” province in Canada still has that big brother commie insurance going on. Probably still has one place to buy booze and the ladies at the Naturalist’s Ballet still have pasties.

  39. How nice that SK the blessed is shown still to be a swamp of socialism. Tommy Douglas,
    somewhere, is smiling.

  40. Texas Canuck, liquor sales in Sask are gov’t entities only, some private outlets in the small towns.
    No peelers in Sask with liquor.

  42. Gov’t insurers, including the brokers who sell the stuff, all drink the kook-aid.
    Many years ago, when I moved from southern Ont. to Winnipeg ( home of Autopac gov’t auto insurance), I needed to Insure my 4 cal. Honda. When I heard the rate for the year I just about died. The broker was so delusional she mistook my abject horror for ecstasy. When I clarified and told her that no, the rate was not the lowest I had ever paid, but by far the highest.
    We went over the coverage and she explained how I needed to carry collision coverage.
    Why?
    So everyone is the same.
    But I don;t want collision.
    But you need it
    Why?
    What happens if you are in an accident?
    If it is my fault and it is so bad that I need to collect on my insurance I won;t be able to collect because I will be dead.
    She was stunned at the honesty, but I still had to have it. Those were the rules.
    I hated communist insurance in both Manitoba and B.C. and in both places the brokers had drunk the same drink as had most of the long term residents.
    Good Luck changing it.

  44. Calvin – been biking for over 3 decades. I find your actuarial data hard to believe from personal experience. Motorcycle riders comprise the largest segment of single vehicle accidents where there is a death payout on the insurance claim. Also bikes involved in a major accident are write offs where the insurance company must pay out replacement value. I once had a 350RD I ditched – bent forks, bars, fender, lighting pod, front end damage etc. – the company wrote it off, sold the wreck and paid me out replacement value rather than let me fix it.
    Bikes are a nightmare for private insurers and the rates show it. Most won’t insure a bike unless they get other business from you. It isn’t a money maker. I’m a senior biker with many years of claim free riding and my premiums are still about twice what my car premiums are and I figure I’m getting off easy at $600/year.

  45. Calvin A
    Yeah and I really drive defensively. I assume that, that car won’t stop for the stop-sign or will proceed because the driver assumes I will swerve or will not damage him.
    I call them discreationary stops….which invariably infuriate the offender….until they see me in their mirror…..I then follow until in his panic he crashes usually within minutes.
    A while back, that didn’t work, a cop saw the twerp blow the stop sign and got there first…took my name etc as a witness…..then made an instant pedestrian….careless and reckless….cop told the guy he was fortunate he had intervened.
    I don’t buy the excuse “I just didn’t see him”…I’ve seen too many look me right in the eye and then suddenly change lanes….once had a guy, oncoming, come right across the middle line….I dodged….but the car following me didn’t.
    I seem to have this horseshoe in my anatomy…if’n ya get my drift….there is such a thing as luck but ya gotta help it a lot.

  46. Dearestb 454guy,
    Your first post made me want to reply in earnest about just how wrong you were. Glad I read the whole thread because now I know you are just a faux conservative a$$hole trying to make us all look stupid and rascist.
    Nice try ,now go home and eat your own poop before trying to lay it on my carpet.

  47. Not really interesting that they picked motorcycles out first, you always go after the fringe first. The interesting question is, if this goes through, and they get away with it, who is next?

  48. 1996 Kawasaki Gpz1100
    2011 Kawasaki 1700 Voyager
    $765/year in most-glorious-oil-producing-capitalist-province-North-Amerika

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