Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 9/5/2011 (3431 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THAT "ka-ching" you hear in the next few days is the sound of your Manitoba Public Insurance rebate cheque landing in your mailbox.

MPI spokesman Brian Smiley said Monday the cheques will be mailed out today to 579,257 Autopac ratepayers.

BRANDON SUN Brian Smiley

Smiley said the amount of your cheque depends on how much you paid in Autopac coverage in 2009-10, but MPI says the average rebate will be about $420.

The cheques are being mailed out under an unprecedented 45 per cent rebate ordered in March by the Public Utilities Board, a quasi-judicial body that oversees MPI and other Crown corporations.

The PUB had earlier ordered a rebate of 10 per cent ($70 million) to vehicle owners, but revised that number when MPI revealed it had socked away $250 million in unpaid injury claims.

The PUB added the numbers and ordered the total be returned to Manitobans.

Rebates are for the basic Autopac policy on each vehicle: If you own one vehicle, you receive one rebate; if you own two vehicles, you get two separate rebate cheques.

Smiley said the smallest cheque is for $2, while the largest is worth $1.7 million for a customer who owns a fleet of vehicles.

The cost to MPI of mailing out the rebate cheques is about $579,257, or about $1 per cheque for processing, administration and postage.

Smiley said if people don't receive their cheque by June 6, they should contact MPI's call centre at 985-7000.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca