Premier Doug Ford’s government announced last week it’s going to review Ontario’s auto insurance system in order to lower rates for drivers.

A review – the government is seeking public input until Feb. 15 – is certainly needed, since Ontario drivers pay the highest insurance premiums in Canada despite being among the country’s safest drivers.

A 2017 study by insurance expert David Marshall for the previous Liberal government found Ontario drivers pay 55% more than the Canadian average for car insurance.

It found the average insurance premium of $1,458 per vehicle in 2015 was 24% higher than in Alberta, double the rate in Quebec.

Marshall’s review, “Fair Benefits Fairly Delivered: A Review of the Auto Insurance System in Ontario” described the province as having one of Canada’s least effective auto insurance systems.

The previous Liberal government failed to address these issues during its 15 years in power, with former premier Kathleen Wynne famously dismissing her broken 2013 promise to lower premiums by 15% as a “stretch goal.”

Ontario’s auto insurance industry blames fraud for high insurance rates, but that’s only part of the problem.

Marshall found $1.4 billion annually – a third of all insurance premium benefits – goes to duelling lawyers and medical experts in court, instead of to treatment for crash victims.

That’s more than the estimated cost of insurance fraud of $1.3 billion annually.

Because of Ontario’s “no fault” insurance system, accident victims often have to sue their own insurance companies for benefits, even when the other driver is at fault or has no insurance.

Consumer groups like FAIR (Fair Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform) say this means accident victims have to hire their own lawyers and medical experts to counter their own insurance companies’ lawyers and medical experts, eating up billions of dollars that should be spent on treating and rehabilitating accident victims.

Auto insurers complain that plaintiffs’ lawyers drive up costs by charging outrageously high contingency fees, which redirect money intended for the treatment of victims into the pockets of their lawyers.

What it all amounts to is a broken auto insurance system that no Ontario government, regardless of political stripe, has ever seriously addressed.

Typically, what they’ve done is to allow insurance companies to reduce the standardized benefit packages they offer to their customers, meaning while people can pay less for a standard policy, it’s because that policy contains fewer benefits.

The Progressive Conservatives who, when they were in opposition, accused the Liberals of failing to fix the insurance system, now say that in government they want to lower insurance rates for drivers and increase competition in the insurance industry.

Let’s hope so, because the current system is unfair to both drivers, who are paying the highest insurance premiums in the country despite being among Canada’s safest drivers, and crash victims, who are not getting the treatment they need and deserve.