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VICTORIA — The B.C. government will not change its new risk rating system for automobile insurance, despite a backlash from young drivers whose rates are skyrocketing.

Attorney General David Eby told Postmedia News the financial pressures at the Insurance Corp. of B.C. and a redesign of insurance rates to make riskier drivers pay more are part of a “multi-year turnaround project for ICBC” that will continue as planned.

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“It’s not gonna be fixed overnight,” Eby said. “So yes, young drivers — not just young drivers, inexperienced drivers who are predominantly young but not exclusively — will be paying higher rates. And there’s really no way around that as far as I can see.”

Eby had hinted recently that he was exploring ways to reduce those rates, which kicked in on Sept. 1. Instead, the government now appears ready to face head-on the stories of skyrocketing insurance bills by critics during this fall’s legislative session.