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Re. “Alberta’s auto insurance regime is broken, but there’s no consensus on possible fixes,” July 12
The article and Chris Varcoe column about auto insurance in Friday’s Journal was very informative. The premium savings per year of $732 by implementing a public auto insurance model looks impressive.
Let’s do the math. There are 927,075 registered passenger vehicles in Alberta. At savings of $732 per vehicle, the total annual savings would total $679 million. The premier says it would cost $3 billion to implement. Three-quarters of this amount is for reserves to pay claims and is not an actual expenditure. Payback on the premier’s inflated figure is 4.4 years.
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What does that mean? Collectively, starting in 2030, every vehicle generates savings of $61 a month in insurance premiums. That’s like a tax cut. It’s not clear what portion of the million trucks, including pickups, would also benefit from public insurance. If half the trucks are in the program, the payback period is down to 2.4 years.
Charles Hitschfeld, Edmonton
UCP ignore grizzly bear experts
The UCP has once again found a way to incentivize some of their followers at the expense of many. This time, it is miscreant farmers. Does the UCP even realize there is such a thing as the environment or tourism? All Minister Todd Loewen has to do is to have a farmer who, instead of disposing of an animal which has died, gives him a call. The minister will know that there is a likelihood that a bear will be feasting on the exposed carcass.
He can call some of his friends for the “hunt” and the “dangerous” bear is killed. What sport! What fun! One less endangered bear and an easy solution for the miscreant farmer, not to mention a rug for the “hunter.”
Meanwhile, the endangered species’ numbers are lessened, the balance of nature is further eroded and tourism — people from around the world come to recreate in our province with the hope of seeing these bears in their natural setting — is lessened as, once again, Alberta is seen as a poor steward of environmental concerns.
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Perhaps Danielle or Todd could pick up the phone and talk to the experts before issuing such disastrous “solutions.”
Ed Guilbault, Edmonton
Edmonton road works never stop
One way of saving Edmonton taxpayers’ dollars would be to stop buying and placing “End of Construction” signs on our city streets. We are all painfully aware that there is no end of construction in our city.
F.J. Niziol, Edmonton
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