To the editor:
ICBC is owned by the Government of British Columbia and directly overseen by the Crown Agencies Secretariat within the Office of the Premier. In March 2010, our government publicly announced that it would require ICBC to pay the province dividends, thus signaling the end of ICBC’s operation as a non-profit Crown corporation. In doing so, no matter how questionable that public action was, it was for the benefit of all residents of British Columbia by way of a balanced annual operating budget.
There is something intrinsically, ethically and morally wrong with substantially increasing annual ICBC insurance rates to cover its accumulated deficit of $1.3 billion. Why are only B.C. drivers held responsible for the ICBC deficit when it was knowingly created by the government for the benefit of all? Like it or not, general personal tax increases or reduced government expenditures are the solution to cover our government’s financial concerns.
Government (one is just as bad as the other) needs to bite the bullet and stop the debilitating political fighting over this contrived political issue. Call crown corporations for what they really are; a tax grab for the benefit of government (that’s all of us) and let’s get on with what needs to be done today and the future of our great province and its people.
Patrick W. Olenick, West Kelowna
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