Scarborough Southwest MPP Doly Begum held town hall about lowering auto insurance rates
Scarborough Southwest MPP and NDP critic for Early Learning and Childcare Doly Begum hosted a town hall this Thursday (November 8) to discuss one of her party’s most recent initiative at the provincial legislature, a bill aimed to end what many see as a discriminatory auto insurance system. The bill was introduced by NDP Auto Insurance critic and MPP from Brampton East Gurratan Singh who was also present at the town hall along with NDP leader Andrea Horwath. The bill proposed the end of auto insurance system where premium is largely based on the postal code. NDP is calling for a system that will be based on individual’s driving record. Even though the bill was defeated at the legislature as the ruling Progressive Conservatives voted against it, NDP leader Andrea Horwath and her NDP MPPs are hosting auto insurance town halls to hear from families and commuters about their auto rates and as the official party communication claims “keeping up the fight for lower auto insurance premiums”.
Speaking to a full house at Warden Hilltop Community Centre, Horwath said “Families throughout the GTA have faced high auto insurance rates for years, and it’s making it more and more expensive to get to work and school”. “Our bill would have ended postal code discrimination, banning insurance companies from charging people more just because they live in Scarborough or Brampton. Doug Ford’s Conservatives voted no on that bill. They chose their friends in the insurance business over families who are getting gouged” said Horwath. “Ending posting code discrimination and bringing rates down is the right thing to do,” Horwath said.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. New Democrats will listen to families and their needs. We will continue to bring solutions to fix auto insurance until we finally get those rates down” Doly Begum told the crowd. When asked by Toronto Citizen to share her reaction on the outcome of the vote on the bill, Doly said “A party that claims to be “Ruling For the People” should not vote against a bill that actually proposes to lower unreasonable auto insurance rate and end discrimination. Premier Ford talks about leading a government for the people, while his actions clearly show that he cares more about making his corporate donors happy, even if that means imposing unjustifiable financial burden on hard working Ontarians. The discrimination that my constituents and hundreds of thousands of people living in Scarborough face is unacceptable and NDP will keep on fighting for them”.
MPP Gurratan Singh expressed his disappointment that the ruling Progressive Conservative party have decided to pave the way for large insurance companies to increase the auto insurance premium almost 20% over last one year while middle class Ontarians struggle to pay for the services they need while keeping up with increasing auto insurance rates.
New Democrats held a similar auto insurance town hall Brampton last month and will hold one in Humber River – Black Creek on Tuesday, Nov. 13.
