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British Columbia’s public auto insurer has driven over a financial cliff and the damage is far worse than anyone had feared or predicted.

On Monday, ICBC will announce a staggering projected operating loss of $1.3 billion for the current fiscal year.

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That’s more than $1 billion higher than projected just three months ago.

The financial hemorrhaging — the Insurance Corp. of B.C. is losing $3.5 million a day — could force massive premium hikes on B.C. drivers, and possibly tilt next month’s balanced provincial budget into a deficit.

Photo by CHAD HIPOLITO / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The tsunami of red ink is revealed in a series of jaw-dropping internal government documents that I obtained.

An ICBC “statement of operations” for the nine-month period that ended on Dec. 31 shows a “net loss” of $935 million, and a projected total loss of $1.29 billion by the end of the current fiscal year on March 31.

“ICBC’s year-end loss is now projected to hit $1.3 billion,” says a private briefing note prepared for Attorney General David Eby. “Now, B.C. drivers are looking at a rate hike of at least $400 more in their premiums by next year unless we take immediate action to keep rates more affordable.”