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Last year’s basic rate hike was 4.9 per cent.

Eby said the rate hikes would help ICBC get on track after years of being gutted by successive Liberal governments.

“ICBC is one of British Columbia’s most important assets. That said, there are deep and profound issues at our public insurer that need to be addressed immediately in order to keep rates affordable for British Columbians in the long term,” Eby said. “We need to take drastic action to fix ICBC’s devastating current financial situation.”

Eby said the corporation’s finances have been trending down in recent years, and in 2016 it lost more than $560 million.

“That loss is the largest annual loss in ICBC’s history,” Eby said.

The rate increase is expected to bring in $205 million in basic premium revenue — ICBC did not have an estimate for the revenue from the optional increase — but even with the hikes in basic and optional insurance, ICBC’s projected loss for next year is $360 million.

A report commissioned by ICBC and prepared by Ernst & Young that was leaked in July warned that B.C. motorists could see vehicle insurance rate hikes of almost 30 per cent in the next two years if the government doesn’t overhaul ICBC’s basic insurance system.

Eby said that kind of rate increase was not an option, and that even an eight per cent overall increase would be difficult for many people.

ICBC premiums are among the highest in Canada, but according to the report “they are not high enough to cover the true cost of paying claims.” Basic rates have long been subsidized by money from the optional coverage side, however the optional insurance business has been dwindling and suffered a loss in the 2016/17 fiscal year.