The Liberal government introduced auto insurance legislation Tuesday designed to reduce delays in payments and tackle fraud in hopes these measures will drive down premiums for Ontario motorists.

The Auto Insurance Cost and Rate Reduction Strategy comes 15 months after a special anti-fraud task force issued a report containing 38 recommendations targeting prevention, detection, enforcement and regulatory roles.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa told reporters the proposed legislation will reduce the time taken to deal with claim disputes, reduce costs when vehicles are in storage at repair shops and provide stricter oversight for health clinics that have often been accused of overbilling when treating accident victims.

It will also further explore the establishment of a special investigation and prosecution unit on serious fraud, including auto insurance fraud and explore province-wide oversight for the towing industry.

“These actions and some others will protect consumers against fraud and reduce cost in the system . . . and rates for Ontario drivers,” Sousa told a news conference at Queen’s Park.

The minority Liberal government, at the urging of the New Democrats, last year introduced a 15-per-cent cut in auto insurance premiums to be phased in over two years. Sousa said a 5-per cent reduction has been achieved so far.

“We are on track to achieve the 15-per-cent reduction within those two years,” Sousa said, adding the government will hired KPMG to monitor the rate reductions.

Tory critic Jeff Yurek (Elgin-Middlesex-London) said the government has had a chance since 2012 to tackle fraud and simply sat on the report.

“The sooner you implement, the sooner the costs are going to go down in the system and the sooner the rates are going to come down for people,” he said.

Yurek said the dispute resolution system is backlogged with 16,000 cases waiting in arbitration “and that is definitely increasing costs in the system and keeping our rates inflated.”

As for government claims that auto insurance is going down already, Yurek explained that is only the case for high-risk companies that insure bad drivers, “while the good drivers . . . their rates are still going up.”

NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh (Bramalea-Gore-Malton) said the auto insurance companies should be forced to pass along the profits to consumers.

“This plan is another example of talking about reducing costs for the insurance companies but there is nothing about bringing down the rates for Ontario drivers,” Singh told reporters.

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Ralph Palumbo, Ontario vice-president for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said streamlining the dispute resolution mechanism will get benefits sooner to those people waiting in the queue.

“I actually think it is good legislation that should be supported by all parties,” he said, adding the proposed changes should drive out unnecessary costs in the system “so that premiums can come down.”