On October 16, 2024, the Government announced the biggest change to auto insurance in over 3 decades. While they have been reducing available funding and refusing to increase benefits with inflation for years, this change will affect every Ontarian dramatically.
Effective July 1, 2026, the only benefits to become mandatory in Ontario will be medical and rehabilitation benefits and attendant care benefits. Any other benefit will become optional. The optional benefits as of July 1, 2026 will be:
- Income Replacement Benefits
- Non Earner Benefits
- Caregiver Benefits
- Educational Expenses
- Visitor Expenses
- Housekeeping / Home Maintenance Expenses
- Damage associated with damage to clothing, glasses, hearing aids, etc.
- Death Benefits
- Funeral Benefits
What does this mean for you? What if you are injured in a car accident and cannot work? This means that unless you purchase and pay for the optional income replacement benefit before you are injured in an accident, you will not be able to claim for lost income. This will be a huge loss when you are already at your most vulnerable. What used to take weeks to recover may now take years requiring a law suit against the at fault party. Or if there is no at fault party, then you will not be compensated for your lost income at all unless you pre purchased those optional benefits.
At a time where finances are already tight, we expect most not to purchase these optional benefits with the hope that premiums will reduce. But what may seem like a short term gain, will prove to be a long term pain – that will turn out too late to change when you need it most.
More on this to come…
