To the Honourable Mickey K. Amery KC, Minister of Justice:
Mickey, it's been abundantly evident for the past two decades that the path between the offices of Insurance Bureau of Canada lobbyists and Treasury Board & Finance bureaucrats is short and well worn. Bluntly, insurance policy bureaucrats in Alberta Finance dance to whatever tune the insurance lobby sings, and it falls to our elected officials to preserve justice for Albertans injured by reckless drivers -- against the wishes of auto insurance lobbyists and their bureaucrat buddies in TBF.
This was a tall order during the previous administration, given that the chief IBC lobbyists were closely connected to Premier Kenney, and considering that TBF Minister Toews spent as much time in that portfolio parroting insurance lobby talking points as he spent racking up the provincial debt. However, politicians such as yourself and my MLA at the time (former Justice Minister Madu) stood tall and protected the rights of Albertans.
Sadly, my friend Kaycee did not retain his seat in this year's general election, and so the torch is passed to you, Mr. Justice Minister, along with your cabinet colleague and fellow lawyer Brian Jean, to ensure that the longstanding civil legal rights of innocent injured Alberta auto accident victims are protected from the odious demands of a multi-billion dollar multinational insurance industry wanting to further pad its preposterously swollen profit margins on the backs of severely normal Albertans.
I've written a few blog posts on this issue this year, which may be of assistance to you:
Also, the good folks at ACTLA and FAIR Alberta are a valuable resource on this issue.
To conclude, this issue ain’t rocket science. As I said in my Edmonton Journal guest column a few months ago, “Auto insurance premiums in our province are overinflated due to outrageous insurance industry profits, which have been rising as sharply as bodily injury claims costs have been falling. The obvious, ethical, and fair Alberta way to reduce auto insurance rates for good drivers is to trim windfall insurer profit margins, not to rob regular Albertans of our civil legal rights — full stop.”
Fellow counsel, thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.
Yours truly,
cc: Hon. Brian Jean, KC
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