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VICTORIA — B.C.’s attorney general is readying legislation to ban governments from raiding the Insurance Corp. of B.C. for profits — assuming the cash-strapped Crown corporation becomes profitable again.

David Eby said he hopes to pass a law in the spring legislative session, making it harder for government to raid ICBC’s one-time lucrative “excess optional capital” fund.

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“We can make it clear to British Columbia that not only is government not taking money out of ICBC, but governments shouldn’t take money out of ICBC. It should go back to drivers,” Eby told Postmedia News on Monday. “And a law seems like a good way to do that.”

Any future surplus, said Eby, should go toward lowering insurance rates, not general provincial revenue.

The previous Liberal government siphoned more than $1.2 billion in profits from ICBC between 2010 and 2016 to pay for other services in the provincial budget.