MPI must evolve to ‘best-in-class’

As a Manitoban, you pay the lowest auto insurance rates in Canada in 2026. (That’s the analysis shared in the Saskatchewan Auto Fund’s 2026 Rate Proposal, in case having your good fortune envied by your neighbours sweetens the news.)

You deal directly with one insurance company — your own — after your vehicle gets hit, rather than chasing the other driver’s company. When it comes to fair and transparent customer service, your insurer has a higher bar to jump than in many other provinces. A private insurance company could just hike your rates; before making rate changes, Manitoba Public Insurance must go through an open and transparent public hearing at the Public Utilities Board, a neutral third party.

It’s worth remembering these points as MPI is slammed in opinion columns, social media posts and water-cooler talk. We have rates and an ease of navigating claims that other Canadians envy. We have a crown corporation that is a crown jewel — or could be.

But the criticism is warranted.

In a multi-year series of blunders, MPI leadership has cut the quality of customer service you expect while raising serious questions about how well the organization is being run. Its cuts to weekend hours at service centres make it harder for you to get support. Dropping weekend road tests at these same locations is likewise grating.

The multimillion-dollar boondoggle of Project Nova was as bad as it was predictable. Rather than turning to MPI’s exceptional in-house information technology team for manageable, graduated upgrades, leadership chose to tackle the entire technology stack at once — and leaned heavily on pricey consultants to do so. A lot has been written on how Project Nova hurt Manitobans’ trust in MPI, but it is worth noting that the lack of IT modernization keeps hampering our expectations of great digital customer service.

To justify existing as a public monopoly, MPI’s customer service should be best-in-class. Deliberate leadership choices to avoid this goal are baffling.

If you’ve read about the last three years of MPI rate hearings at the PUB, you’ve seen the unserious, unsustainably low rates MPI leadership has put forward. Yes, let’s keep rates low. We are in a cost-of-living crisis. But rate-hike proposals that dip down to the realm of self-harm don’t help Manitobans in the long run — especially as we know that unprecedented weather events such as the June 2026 hailstorm will increasingly challenge MPI’s financial position.

Further media coverage has noted MPI leaders appeared unprepared at PUB hearings. It all gives the appearance grown-ups aren’t at the steering wheel. But we need to be cautious when suggesting fixes because, as I noted earlier, MPI has many strengths we should maintain. That includes its dedicated workforce.

Dan Lett wrote in his Oct. 14 column (“MPI leadership not fooling anyone by forcing PUB’s hand”) that the ranks at MPI are “bloated” or overstaffed. But the corporation is handling more claims than ever and that is set to grow, owing to climate-change-fuelled storms and our growing population. He also wrote about former CEO Eric Herbelin “adding hundreds of positions” in recent years. If so, they sure aren’t showing up in MGEU’s membership counts of front-line workers. If non-union management ranks have ballooned, then perhaps savings could be found at the upper levels of MPI and redirected to the front lines. Calls for “progress in reducing head count” should be carefully targeted to avoid hurting customer-service levels further.

Workers at MPI are acutely aware of how you view their workplace and the services they provide. Like anyone, they want their hard work and efforts to be recognized. And that is being undermined by their own leadership.

It’s surprisingly easy for a valuable asset to be written off. On Oct. 24, British Columbians vote in an election in which the future of their no-fault auto insurance is very much at risk. Their ratepayers may soon see the costs of trial lawyers raising their rates — even the introduction of less accountable private insurers — and realize too late that they’ve lost something important.

MPI’s board of directors must demand more from the corporation’s leadership to avoid such a future in Manitoba. Moves to expand the customer service you receive should be the norm. To show competent strategy and avoid MPI becoming a liability, proposed rate hikes must be sustainable — resisting political pressure that says otherwise.

Your view of MPI may have been dented by years of its leadership’s failures. That’s understandable. But it’s worth remembering the insurer’s strengths while insisting on better service and governance.

Kyle Ross is president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union.