Average auto insurance premiums in the province increased by 14 per cent between 2017 and 2021, to $1,642, the province's auditor general said Wednesday.

Bonnie Lysyk said in her annual report that Ontario has the highest private passenger auto insurance premiums in Canada, despite having one of the lowest rates of car crash injuries.

"Despite several reports providing recommendations over the past decade to improve Ontario’s private passenger automobile insurance framework and lower premium costs, the (regulator) and the Ministry of Finance have not sufficiently improved the framework to provide less costly private passenger automobile insurance to Ontarians," Lysyk wrote.

Lysyk said, for example, Ontario could follow British Columbia and Saskatchewan's lead and implement a mandatory certification regime for vehicle repair businesses to protect against fraud.

A government-commissioned report in 2017 called Ontario's auto insurance system "one of the least effective insurance systems in Canada," and recommended several changes, including adopting a "care not cash" approach, exploring better ways to care for people who are catastrophically injured, and making lawyers' contingency fees more transparent.

Little action has been taken so far on the report's recommendations, Lysyk wrote.

The former Liberal government commissioned the 2017 report at a time when it was under fire for promising, but failing, to significantly decrease auto insurance rates. The Liberals had promised in 2013 to lower rates by an average of 15 per cent by 2015, but then-premier Kathleen Wynne later admitted it was a "stretch goal."

By the first quarter of 2018, not long before the Liberals were roundly defeated in the election by the Progressive Conservatives, the average rate decrease was about 3.3 per cent since 2013.

Lysyk also found that auto insurance rates vary so widely in the province that the exact same person driving the same car would pay $1,200 a year in London, Ont., but $3,350 per year in Brampton, Ont.

The government directed the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario to start reviewing that framework earlier this year.

AG 2022: Ontario auto insurance premiums rose 14% since 2017, are highest in the country

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