The Rural Voice, 1991-09, Page 10VARNA GRAIN
is ready to receive your
1991 Soybeans and Corn Crops
fl
3 Receiving Pits • All Harvest Services Available
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vawhike
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Seed N\12Ab\e
/44,0
Hill AND Hill
FARMS
LIMITED
VARNA ONT.
WHEAT* BARIIY^�'
CORN • SOVABEANS:
FIRST LINE SEEDS
Contact:
BEV HILL
233-3218
PETE ROWNTREE
or 233-7908
6 THE RURAL VOICE
FEEDBACK
These are pure mutuals — that is,
there are no outside stockholders. A
mutual company is completely owned
by the policyholders, who elect direc-
tors from among themselves to direct
the company operation.
Since 1977, 37 of the farm mutual
companies have moved into auto insu-
rance, and collectively, auto premiums
account for over 35 per cent of their
volume.
For many years, the NDP have
been pushing for a "driver -owned"
system of auto insurance as the best
alternative for Ontario. However,
there is a big difference between the
existing mutuals, which compete in a
free enterprise system (where over 150
insurance companies compete for mar-
ket share) and what the NDP govern-
ment have in mind. They are talking
about a government auto insurance
monopoly!
It should be pointed out that soon
after the NDP government was
formed, a special ministry of auto
insurance review was set up to give a
thorough study of the issue. This was
a logical move. The auto insurance
issue is complex. The study will give
them information that was not avail-
able to them while in opposition
where, we believe, their position on
auto insurance was largely based on
the government-owned systems in
western Canada.
Ontario is a very different "ball of
wax." First, there are approximately
5.3 million automobiles in Ontario
compared to 800,000 in Saskatche-
wan, 720,000 in Manitoba, and 2.2
million m British Columbia.
Secondly, when govemment auto
insurance was instituted in those pro-
vinces, jobs were brought into the pro-
vince, because most insurance compa-
ny head offices are located in Ontario.
That is certainly not the case in Onta-
rio where thousands of jobs will be
lost.
In 1990, a threshold — no fault
auto insurance product was introduced
in Ontario. One major reason for this
change of product was to control the
escalating price of insurance caused
by escalating claims costs. Early indi-
cations are that this new product will
result in control of claims costs and,