Canadian home and auto insurance rates continue to rise

• Dan Twomey keeps reading about insurance profits and hearing his premiums should come down 10 per cent.
• Canadian home and auto insurers broke all records last year with an estimated $4.2 billion profit and a 20.6 per cent return on equity.
• NDP Leader Howard Hampton blasted the Liberals, saying they had "wrestled insurance profits to the ceiling" and "aided and abetted big insurance in a massive rip-off of Ontario drivers and accident victims."
• But Premier Dalton McGuinty insisted motorists in Ontario are no longer being squeezed after years of high rates.
• McGuinty noted insurance rates went up 27 per cent under the NDP, and 36 per cent under the Tories.
• "During our first year on the job, I'm proud to report that rates have come down by 10.6 per cent," he said.
• "I will gladly compare our record against that of the NDP or that of Conservatives any day when it comes to what's happened to insurance premiums in the province of Ontario."
• But Hampton said Friday's 2004 profit announcement --- an almost 70 per cent increase over 2003 that stunned industry observers --- raises serious questions.
• "I invite the premier to go to any community in Ontario and talk to anybody who is trying to insure their automobile and try to pedal that story, and see how far you get," said Hampton.
• Because they know if they do make a claim, their auto insurance rate will skyrocket after that," he said.
• Indeed, insurance companies have noted a decline in the number of minor claims, although overall they paid more in claims last year --- $20.6 billion in property, casualty and auto claims --- than in any previous year in the industry.