There is something rotten in the auto insurance industry in Ontario, yet Wynne and Sousa do nothing but hold their noses

Auto insurance bonanza … Not for car crash victims, but for the insurers’ ​doctors who examine them

BY ALAN SHANOFF, TORONTO SUN

Ed: How long can Kathleen Wynne and Charles Sousa pretend there is nothing wrong with the auto insurance industry in Ontario – with exorbitant and usurious insurance rates and obscene profits (the insurance industry pockets 61-cents of every dollar taken in)? Add to these the legal debts incurred while trying to collect on legitimate claims. The whole thing stinks to high heaven, and yet Wynne and Sousa go blithely on pretending there is nothing wrong in the Kingdom of Chaos. Read on…

ORONTO - The Ontario Health Claims Database, August 2014 Report, was issued earlier this month.

It discloses data for auto insurance health claims expenses for six-month reporting periods, beginning January 1, 2011 and ending June 30, 2014.

It will be interesting to see how the insurance industry explains the inconvenient numbers and statistics disclosed in the Report.

Perhaps the most alarming statistic relates to the number and cost of insurer-initiated medical examinations (IMEs).

These are the so-called independent examinations insurance companies force accident victims to take.

Victims have long complained about the number of examinations they are required to attend as well as the quality of the examinations and examiners.

In 2011, insurers spent $132,950,124 on these IMEs.

They spent $453,923,425 on all health claims expenses, meaning insurers gave their medical experts 29.3 cents out of every dollar they spent on health claims expenses.

They ordered IMEs for 26,957 of 59,080 claimants, almost one out of of every two claimants.

They paid an average of $4,930 per claimant examined to their medical experts.

Yet the total average amount paid per claimant, including payment for treatment, was $7,683.

***

To read the whole commentary, go to: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/30/auto-insurance-bomnanza

Ontario taxpayers invest $220M to create 1,700 jobs (i.e. $130,000 per job) -- Nice deal if you can get it!

On December 28, 2013, I wrote: On Dec. 13 Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne delivered a big corporate kiss under the mistletoe to Cisco System’s Canada division. Taxpayers will dole out $220 million to a company that, worldwide, had revenues of $49 billion in fiscal 2013. In return, Cisco promised to create “up tp” 1,700 high-tech jobs. “Cisco profit soars 56%” is the headline of an August 2012 CNN story. Huh. I wonder if Ontario taxpayers will see their incomes soar by the same amount. [See: http://gerry-stopthebull.blogspot.ca/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&max-results=15] Well, on August 16. 2014 the Sun News Network reported that, “The Ontario government has been advised by Cisco that the company’s planned layoff of 6,000 employees  will not impact its commitment to create 1,700 jobs in the province. Hmm, according to my math, that’s a net loss of 4,300 jobs. Way t’ go, Kathleen Wynne!

BY ANTONELLA ARTUSO ,QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU CHIEF

TORONTO - The Ontario government has been advised by Cisco that the company’s planned layoff of 6,000 employees will not impact its commitment to create 1,700 jobs in the province, Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid says.

Ontario taxpayers will invest $220 million in the giant information and communications technology firm, almost $130,000 per job, even as it embarks on a plan to cut its global workforce.

“We’ve been in touch with Cisco and I can assure you we’ve been told that there’ll be little if any impact at all in Ontario,” Duguid said Friday. “It will not in any way affect our partnership to create those 1,700 new jobs.

“It’s important to know that on all of these partnerships we have strict performance measures in place that holds companies to account for the number of jobs and the timetable for the creation of those jobs,” he said.

If the company reneges on its obligation to create jobs, the public dollars will not flow, he said.

NDP MPP Wayne Gates released a copy of that agreement Friday with the job creation schedule and penalties redacted, and he called on the government to make public the full contract public.

Ontarians need to know that the government has signed an ironclad job creation guarantee before handing out funds, he said.

“We don’t want to see public dollars go to companies closing up shops and leaving people out of work,” Gates said.

Cisco Canada announced in December that it would make a major investment in research and development facilities in Ontario, creating up to 1,700 high tech job mainly in Ottawa and Toronto.

The province has shed hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs - a trend that began even before the recession of 2008-09 - and has been looking for ways to boost job creation in well-paying sectors such as high tech.

To read the full article, go to: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/15/ciscos-ontario-job-commitment-firm-despite-layoffs-duguid

       

Bell Canada is the biggest money-grasping outfit that the devil ever put a foundation under!!

UPDATE #1: On Monday, I received a letter from Bell with instructions on how to return their modem, i.e. put it in a box; transport it to the nearest post office; make sure all parts are included. Meanwhile, I am paying for their discontinued service until September 7th with nothing in return! UPDATE #2: This morning I received a call from a call centre representing Bell Canada, wanting to negotiate my return to their ‘clutches.’ I suspect that the call centre was  getting a commission if they conned me back, but I was having none of it. I told them that if they offered the service for nothing, I still would not do business with such as sleazy outfit as Bell Canada.

BCE Inc., Canada’s second-largest wireless carrier, reported second-quarter profit ($5 billion) and sales that beat analysts’ estimates…

No kidding … And here’s an example of how they did it.

When I first signed on with Bell Canada (internet), just a few years ago, my monthly bill was around $48. Today, after a four dollar increase around the time Verizon was talking about coming to Canada, it is $60 per month — a 28% increase.

Recently, however, without any known change on my part, I was suddenly and mysteriously exceeding the 25 gigabyte limit – A limit which is ridiculously low by today’s usage standards. Moreover, while Bell charges $2.40 per gigabyte for regular service, it charges $4.00 per gigabyte on the ‘over’ usage. That, times 11.9 gigabytes, equals $47 in my case.

The idea, of course, is to get you to move up to the next level or add extra usage for around $14.00 per month (the exact amount is presently not available on the Bell web site.)

Not surprisingly I found myself another provider, but although Bell’s service was discontinued August 5, 2014, Bell is charging me until today (Aug 8th) PLUS another 30 days’ notice period. A quick calculation of all this comes to about $66.00 (with 13% tax, $74.)

To add insult to injury the Bell store won’t take back their modem, which is now useless to me. So, like everything else this monopolistic outfit does, I must arrange to send it back, myself.

Would I do business with Bell Canada again? Not in a thousand years of Sundays!

Addendum

As  accessories to all this, I include the Harper government, James Moore (Minister of Industry), as well as the former Finance Minister, James Flaherty. All of them have made grandiose but empty statements about making cell phone and internet rates more open and affordable.

Well, if they have, I have yet to see it. Rogers still charged me $3.90-a-minute roaming charges while I was in United States, and the much touted limiting of ‘overcharges’ to $50 only applies to cell phones.

In other words, all their fine words have meant $0 in my pocket.

It is an outrage!

Pssst ... Ma Bell is a gold digger! Pass it on.

I received my final bill from Bell Canada today. It’s the “final” bill because hell will freeze over twice before I deal with them again.

When I first signed on with Bell (internet) service, not that many years ago, the monthly bill was about $48. The last increase—made while rumours were pending that Verizon might be coming to Canada—was from $56 to $59.

That was usurious enough, but after years of the same usage, without exceeding my 25 gigabyte package, I was suddenly exceeding it by 11 – 13 gigs at $3.98 a gigabyte!!

Did I somehow and mysteriously start exceeding my limit? I don’t know. The fact is that I only have Bell’s figures to go on, and those are calculated at a different time than my regular billing date.

There may be an app out there whereby I can keep track of my own usage, but I’m not aware of it. However, for the money it charges Bell should offer unlimited service—not this ridiculously low 25-gig package. Moreover, how can Bell justify charging $3.98 per gigabyte when the regular charge is $2.40?

It all smacks of usury, but one is utterly helpless to do anything about it except go to another server, which I have done. Nonetheless, The Harper government, and Minister James Moore in particular, bear some responsibility in this as well. For apart from vague platitudes about ‘lower prices,’ they do nothing specific to bring them about.

PS: I switched to Distributel DSL6 (unlimited) for $36.95 (tax not included). If you wish to check it out, follow this link: https://www.distributel.ca/en/cat/Internet

Slip the kid past the turnstyle while the conductor isn't looking...

Wynne and the Liberals are back to their same old tricks.

Shawn Jeffords, QMI Agency, Toronto Sun News Network.

The pension plans for public electricity bodies, including Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation, are "generous, expensive and inflexible" when compared to other public sector plans ~ Jim Leech.

TORONTO - Pension plans in Ontario's electricity sector are "far from sustainable" and increase the risk of further hydro rate hikes, warns a quietly released Ontario finance ministry report.

Posted to the ministry's website Friday [August 1^st], the 45-page report was penned by special adviser Jim Leech and dated March 18.

Leech said the pension plans for public electricity bodies, including Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation, are "generous, expensive and inflexible" when compared to other public sector plans.

"The employers bear all risks, such as investment performance, interest rate changes and increased longevity," he wrote of the plans. "These risks increase both the amount and the volatility of pension costs, which is ultimately borne by ratepayers, customers and shareholders."

Leech, the former CEO of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, wrote any shortfall in a plan will have to be covered by taxpayers. That could impact hydro prices in the province, he said.

"Pension costs represent a significant risk to prices," he said. "It is difficult to predict pension expense as market returns shift, low interest rates continue, and mortality assumptions change. This volatility represents a price risk for customers."

Leech also said that for the $585 million in contributions to the plan in 2012, employees contributed just over $100 million.

He recommends moving to 50/50 contributions, saying it will help "address public concern over the impact of the employer contributions to these generous pension plans on electricity rates."

The plans have 18,000 active members and approximately 19,000 retired or deferred members.

Tory finance critic Vic Fedeli accused the Liberal government of "suppressing" the release of the report until the eve of a long weekend.

"They talk about being open and transparent but it's anything but that," he said.

To read the full the full article, go to: http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/politics/archives/2014/08/20140804-103550.html