Drivers in BC are facing an increase in basic insurance rates of 6.4%.
Attorney-General David Eby says it's part of a multi-year plan to fix the public insurer's financial crisis - last year alone, ICBC lost a half-a-billion dollars.
Optional insurance is also expected to jump 3.1%, followed by quarterly increases of 2.2% to a maximum of 9.6%.
For an average driver, this is an annual blended increase between basic and optional rates of 8% or $130.
In making the announcement today, Eby says "drastic action is needed to fix ICBC's devastating financial crisis, but BC drivers should not be forced to pay 20% basic rate hikes today because of mismanagement that goes back years."
Eby noted that legislation passed in 2010 allowed government to take unprecedented levels of cash out of ICBC. After that regulation was introduced, $1.2 billion was removed from ICBC and put into government's general revenue.
He says "it's unacceptable for government to treat ICBC like an ATM machine - and it cost BC drivers more than a billion dollars. Our priority is to make sure that affordability for good drivers always comes first."
Other measures the government plans to roll out include 24-hour red-light cameras at high-collision intersections, and a pilot program of new technologies to eliminate distracted driving.