Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 21, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba A4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I TOP NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2025 Note to MPI: not losing as much isn’t a win I T is getting harder to believe that Manitoba Public Insurance believes what it is saying. Last week, MPI released its annual report for the year ending March 2025, confirming it had suffered a net loss on its operations of $19.7 million. This is an improvement over the $125 million it lost in the previous year, but still not an acceptable result for a Crown corporation that enjoys a monopoly on vehicle insurance. Despite the fact MPI is still losing money, board chair Carmen Nedohin could only see the Autopac glass as half-full. “Through careful financial steward- ship, that saw an increase in earnings over the previous year, and proactive risk management,” Nedohin said in a news release, “we have taken meaning- ful steps to safeguard MPI and protect the investments of Manitobans.” The problem is that is not exactly what the annual report says about the MPI’s financial stewardship. The report cited a long shopping list of concerns, including rising claims costs, global tariffs, inflation and “shifting political dynamics.” But MPI left out two major issues that reveal the board chair’s optimism as some- what misplaced. The first is the cost of operating MPI. For many years now, the Public Utilities Board — which reviews an- nual Autopac rate applications — and a host of interveners have raised con- cerns about the corporation’s adminis- trative costs, which soared under the tenure of ousted CEO Eric Herbelin. Before he was summarily dismissed in May 2023, Herbelin oversaw years of massive growth in overhead and head count, much of it connected to the ill-fated Project Nova technology overhaul. Herbelin paid millions to consultants and hired hundreds of new staff in a desperate bid to get Nova to the implementation finish line. When Herbelin’s successor, Satvir Jatana, finally pulled the plug on Nova last March, MPI had spent more than $160 million without being able to deliver on even a fraction of the project’s goals. One would have thought that with Herbelin gone and Nova written off, the board and senior management of MPI would move to impose strict cost controls. The Crown insurer’s latest numbers show that is not the case. MPI spends more than 28 cents of every dollar it collects on administra- tive costs. That’s up significantly from the previous fiscal year, when the ex- pense ratio was 23.2 per cent, and way out of whack with the 12-15 per cent that is considered a best practice in the private insurance industry. That inability to control costs shows up in several important ways. This week, MPI is at the Public Utilities Board seeking a 2.07 per cent rate in- crease on top of a significant increase in deductibles for basic-level Autopac coverage that could add hundreds of dollars to the vehicle owner’s share of a claim. Interveners at the PUB will argue this week — and with quite a bit of jus- tification — that these additional costs could be erased with a healthy dose of cost control. The other thing MPI did not mention in its 2024-2025 annual report — some- thing that could definitely lower Au- topac rates — is that it is still getting stiffed by government for the full cost of driver and vehicle licensing. Although MPI runs driver and vehicle licensing, the province collects the roughly $200 million in fees. Government is supposed to transfer money back to MPI to cover the cost of offering the services, but over the last 20 years that rebate has fallen short of actual costs. In 2024-2025, MPI lost nearly $30 million on Drivers and Vehicles Act operations, more than twice the $13.2 million it suffered the previous year. Even though government has the reve- nues to cover those losses, it has been left to Autopac ratepayers to make up the difference. That is odd, because there was hope that when the NDP won the 2023 election, it would stop this unforgivable practice. And for good reason. In a 2021 commentary published in the Free Press Community Review, Finance Minister Adrien Sala (then an opposition critic) lambasted the former Progressive Conservative government for using Autopac revenues to cover the shortfall in driver and vehicle licensing. “Given the economic challenges Manitobans are facing right now,” Sala queried, “why does the PC government think it makes sense to take more mon- ey away from Manitobans?” The question rings true, even today. It’s fair to ask whether MPI is man- aging this part of its operations in an efficient way. And there is a possibility that the generous fees paid to private insurance agencies for performing some of the driver and vehicle licens- ing services are simply not sustain- able. Even so, the NDP essentially prom- ised to end this practice when it was in opposition. It hasn’t happened. Given its inability to effectively manage its own costs, and the govern- ment’s continued refusal to make MPI whole for driver and vehicle licens- ing, the optimism expressed by the corporation’s board in the news release accompanying the annual report is simply not justifiable. At the PUB hearings this week, the MPI executive and board should be unveiling a plan to restore financial stability. What they should not be doing is echoing that news release, which ad- vanced the argument that performing less badly than the year before is even remotely equivalent to doing well. dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com DAN LETT OPINION 30 years for ‘brutal’ attack on partner, daughter A MANITOBA man says he was driv- en by the voice of the devil when he bound and brutalized his common-law wife and sexually assaulted her young daughter during nearly eight hours of terror. “The devil tried to take my soul, but he couldn’t do it,” the 42-year-old man told a Winnipeg court Monday. “Jesus came and saved my life. I wish I could have turned to the Lord sooner.” The man previously pleaded guilty to one count each of aggravated assault, sexual interference and forcible con- finement. The Free Press is not nam- ing the offender or the First Nation on which the crimes occurred so as not to identify his victims. Court of King’s Bench Justice Vic Toews sentenced the man Monday to 30 years in prison, the same sentence rec- ommended by lawyers for the Crown and defence. Quoting submissions from the Crown, Toews called the man’s actions “brutal, savage and cruel,” and expressed doubts of any prospects for rehabilita- tion. “I can’t overestimate the suffering of the victims,” he said. “There is a very good chance (he) will never see the out- side of a prison.” According to an agreed statement of facts previously provided to court, the offender had been drinking home brew on Dec. 10, 2023, when around midnight he got into a heated argument with his common-law wife about their relation- ship. He knocked the woman to the floor and beat her, saying: “After tonight, none of us are going to be alive.” Then he gave the woman a choice: be the victim of a murder-suicide, or allow herself to be tied up and watch the man kill himself. The man used a torn-up bed sheet, shoelaces and string to hog-tie the woman. He continued to beat her until he heard their young daughter waking up in the living room. The man moved the girl to another child’s bedroom and closed the door. Then he turned his attention to the woman’s young daughter from another relationship, and violently sexually as- saulted her. The girl’s mother, hearing the as- sault, yelled at the girl to come to her. When she did, the man told the mother “to choose between her or her daugh- ter,” said the agreed statement of facts. The woman explained to (her daugh- ter): “He is asking me to choose wheth- er to kill me or you. The girl “indicated she did not want to die, and she did not want her mother to die.” The man told the girl “he was going to choose” and ordered her out of the room, at which point he used a bed sheet to strangle the woman from behind. When she lost consciousness, the man hog-tied the girl and repeatedly sexual- ly assaulted her. “The accused was adamant he want- ed to commit suicide by the police shooting him,” says the agreed state- ment of facts. The man initially refused police de- mands to leave the house, but after negotiations he agreed to release the three children before surrendering himself to officers. dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca DEAN PRITCHARD RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS COOKING FOR A CAUSE A group of chefs, part of the Winnipeg branch of the Canadian Culinary Federation, volunteer their time serving up a hot lunch to Siloam Mission guests on “International Day of the Chef” Monday. It’s an annual event where local chefs and culinary volunteers prepare and serve a nutritious meal to homeless and less fortunate individuals in Winnipeg. Says ‘no’ when asked if that means Canadians’ home values must fall Average home prices must fall: minister OTTAWA — Federal Housing Minis- ter Gregor Robertson says the average price of housing — not necessarily in- dividual home values — must fall to re- store affordability in Canada. Robertson was before the House of Commons finance committee on Mon- day answering MPs’ questions about the Liberal government’s affordability legislation. He acknowledged in his opening re- marks that Canada faces a “housing crisis” but argued the federal Liberals are taking action to lower the cost of a home and boost the housing supply. Conservative MP Aaron Gunn asked the minister if he still believes home prices don’t need to fall in Canada, cit- ing comments Robertson made after he was sworn into cabinet in May. Robertson focused on average home prices in his response. “To be clear, we need to see aver- age prices of housing for Canadians come down. We have to build a lot more non-market housing to bring down that average cost,” he said Monday. When he was asked in May wheth- er he felt home prices needed to come down, Robertson said “no.” “I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable. It’s a huge part of our economy, but we need to be delivering more affordable housing,” he said at the time. Housing affordability has been a cen- tral issue on Parliament Hill for years, thanks to a rapid rise in home prices over the past few decades that boxed many would-be buyers out of home ownership. The non-profit Generation Squeeze, which advocates for generational fair- ness in government policy, said in a 2022 report that the average number of years Canadians needed to save up for a 20 per cent down payment on a typical home increased to 17 years in 2021, up from seven years in 2001. The situation was even bleaker in the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Van- couver, where the average homebuyer had to save for 27 years to put down a payment on a local home as of 2021. Generation Squeeze found at the time that the average national home price would need to fall $341,000 — or full- time earnings would need to double — to allow the typical young person to afford a mortgage on a representative home. Paul Kershaw, founder of Generation Squeeze, recently told The Canadian Press that the number of years need- ed to save for a down payment in 2024 stood closer to 13.7 on a national basis following a post-pandemic decline in average home prices across Canada. Much of Robertson’s time before the committee Monday was spent de- fending the previous Liberal govern- ment’s housing record and his own tenure as mayor of Vancouver from 2008 to 2018, a period that saw substan- tial appreciation in local home values. Robertson said his experience in Van- couver showed him the many challen- ges in how housing “works at the local level.” He said he understood how to work between municipal, provincial and federal housing authorities to get affordable homes built. He also said home prices were al- ready escalating, particularly on the West Coast, before either his election or the election of Justin Trudeau’s first Liberal government in 2015. “Housing has become less affordable probably since the day I was born. By nature, it has increased over many dec- ades,” he said. Robertson said population growth is a factor in housing affordability but did not answer directly when asked whether he believes federal immigra- tion policy in the past decade has make homes less affordable. Robertson argued that the Liber- al government’s Bill C-4 — the stated topic for his appearance at committee — would help Canadians break into the ownership market. That legislation includes a proposal for first-time homebuyers to receive up to $50,000 in federal tax relief on a new home worth up to $1 million. The GST break diminishes for more expensive homes up to $1.5 million. — The Canadian Press CRAIG LORD RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson did not answer when asked if immigration policies have led to affordability issues. ;