Toronto personal injury lawyer Albert Conforzi: I am sure most of you saw the reports relating to the Ontario budget that was presented to the legislature this past week.

Ultimately, if the government does not survive the confidence motion, the document will become the centrepiece for the Liberal party’s election campaign.

For Ontario motorists, there is a pledge to try to get a 15% reduction in auto insurance premiums. This is an attempt to get New Democratic party support for the budget. It remains to be seen whether the pledge works. In the meantime, any discussion about insurance premiums usually ends up being a trade-off of rights and benefits versus cost. But the devil is always in the details.

The proposal is a 15% reduction for safe drivers, which sounds great. But it remains to be seen what a “safe” driver means to insurers.

One provision tells me that the insurance lobby is alive, well, and has already sealed the deal. That provision relates to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) potentially licensing therapy clinics.

On its face, this idea is supposed to answer concerns about potential fraud by shady clinics. However, the idea of FSCO becoming a licensing commission of clinics is open to tremendous abuse. Think what would happen to a clinic or clinics targeted by insurers because they are too committed to serving victims. Sufficient coordinated complaints by insurers would certainly give rise to an investigation by FSCO, and a potential revocation of that clinic’s license by the investigations could result. One can easily foresee insurers working towards a day when only clinics who work at minimizing a victim’s access to care will be the order of the day.

Never underestimate the efforts of insurers at advancing their profits ahead of actually helping policyholders.

Albert Conforzi is a personal injury lawyer with Pace Law Firm in Toronto. His posts generally appear on Mondays.