FSRA Property and Casualty Insurance Stakeholder Advisory Committee meeting with the Board of Directors
Summary of the Meeting of June 10, 2022
Via Zoom
Stakeholder Advisory Committee members present:
Greg Smith - Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc.
Geoffrey Beechey - CADRI
Karin Ots - Aviva Canada Inc.
Kim Donaldson - Insurance Bureau of Canada
Josie Porto - Wawanesa Mutual Insurance
John Taylor - Ontario Mutual Insurance Association
Brad Neilson - Intact Financial Corporation
Donna Ince - Economical Insurance
George Hardy - Co-operators
Colin Simpson - IBAO
Elliott Silverstein - CAA Insurance
Board members present:
Joanne De Laurentiis – Chair of the Board
Blair Cowper-Smith - Director
Joseph Iannicelli - Director
Stewart Lyons – Director
Brent Zorgdrager – Director
Barbara Bellissimo – Director
Kathy Bouey – Director
Management members present:
Mark White – Chief Executive Officer
Glen Padassery – Executive Vice President, Policy & Chief Consumer Officer
Jordan Solway – Executive Vice President, Legal and Enforcement
Judy Pfeifer – Chief Public Affairs Officer
Huston Loke – Executive Vice President, Market Conduct
Mehrdad Rastan – Executive Vice President, Credit Unions & Insurance Prudential
Tim Bzowey – Executive Vice President, Auto Insurance Products
Chris Zolis – Director, Forensic Analysis and Investigations
Joel Gorlick – Director, Policy, Market Conduct
Reesha Hosein – Director, Legal Services and Deputy General Counsel
Erica Hiemstra – Head, Insurance Conduct
Elissa Sinha – Director, Litigation and Enforcement and Deputy General Counsel
Alena Thouin – Deputy General Counsel
Michael Tin – Senior Manager, Market Conduct
Corporate secretary’s office:
Heather Greenberg – Corporate Secretary
Ligia Simoes – Assistant Corporate Secretary
Demola Oloyede – Board Administrator
General comments:
The Chair of the Board called the meeting to order and provided introductory remarks about the importance of sector engagement. She noted that the Board recognizes that effective engagement builds a stronger regulatory working relationship and trust and that it is important that both FSRA and its stakeholders share valuable information through open and strategic discussions. She noted that as part of their governance role, the Board would like to better understand the Committee’s environment, needs, and interests with a focus on forward looking activities and asked the Committee to comment on the factors or changes in their sector that they are actively monitoring, top sector risks and critical success factors for the sector.
The Committee discussed factors or changes in the sector that they are actively monitoring, including the cost of auto insurance, the impact of inflation on the cost of auto insurance, consumer preferences, and staffing shortages due to labour market dynamics.
The Committee discussed top sector risks, including:
- product risk fuelled by growing public intolerance for high cost of auto insurance
- factors that contribute to regulatory risk such as data demands, participation in consultations, expectations for the industry and resource commitments, and slowness of licensing key personnel
- improper insurance coverage
- climate change and natural catastrophes
The Committee discussed the sector’s critical success factors, including the need for auto insurance reform, rate regulation reform, joint and several liability reform, principles-based regulation, effective natural catastrophe mitigation, meeting the insurance sector human resources challenges, and to succeed in the fight against insurance fraud.
The Committee commended FSRA for its expertise and approach to collaboration, both generally and in specific cases such as the recent changes made to adjuster licensing requirements in response to the May 21, 2022 storm in Southern Ontario.
The Chair thanked the Committee for their insight and helping the Board focus on the strategic issues for the sector. The Executive Vice-President, Auto Insurance Products, FSRA noted that the information provided by the Committee helps management determine the strategic priorities for the annual business plan and looks forward to engaging with the Committee for further input on those priorities later in the year.