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In his effort to stop the financial bleeding at ICBC, Attorney General David Eby has gone to war against the province’s personal-injury lawyers, who pocketed about $500 million last year in legal fees.

But there’s another major money leak at the government’s auto insurance monopoly that Eby seems to be ignoring as it hemorrhages just as much cash: broker fees.

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Last year, insurance brokers raked in $490 million in ICBC commissions — about the same amount of money flowing to the lawyers Eby is battling so fiercely.

Why is ICBC paying out so much money to insurance brokers? A key reason is that ICBC does not offer direct online insurance renewal to its customers, a service commonplace in other jurisdictions.

Instead of directly buying your car insurance with the click of a computer mouse or tap of a smartphone screen, ICBC forces customers to visit a broker’s office. And the brokers take a cut of the action every time.