The victims of April’s deadly Lapu-Lapu Day festival vehicle-ramming incident should see more compensation and benefits under ICBC’s no-fault insurance system compared with the prior model, according to the provider’s interim CEO.
last week victims will face significant challenges to receiving fair compensation. The group has opposed the new model since its 2021 inception and is suing ICBC on grounds the new regulations are unconstitutional by limiting a person's right to sue for injuries and death.
“I believe that we're going to do far more for the victims in this system than we ever would have been able to do in the old system, where we would have been defending the insurance policy of the perpetrator, as opposed to giving people what they need for their care and their wage loss, compensation for the serious injuries,” said Jason McDaniel, ICBC’s interim CEO and president.
He said that while he’s confident in the new process, a more precise estimate of the amounts will not be known for some time and in many cases a lifetime of supports will be distributed, particularly for those with what the insurance provider deems “catastrophic” injuries, such as paralysis.
ICBC now has a dedicated team to support anyone affected by the tragedy. Immediate supports are available and include pre-approved medical treatments and counselling.
McDaniel, who is also ICBC’s vice-president of operations, said over 50 people have already sought some form of benefits from ICBC under what it calls the “Enhanced Care” model.
Seven women, two men, one non-binary person and one child were killed at the April 26 street festival after a black Audi SUV was driven through the street festival crowd.
Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, of Vancouver, has been arrested and charged with .
McDaniel said this is the worst tragedy ICBC has dealt with.
What are victims entitled to?
For those not physically injured, ICBC provides up to $4,440 in counselling services for each eligible person, said McDaniel.
Then come benefits for those who are modestly injured, which are outlined .
Enhanced Care covers pre-approved medical treatments for everyone for 12 weeks after their crash no matter who was responsible, according to ICBC.
Examples of treatments include 25 physiotherapist visits at $95 per visit and 12 licensed 40-minute massages at $105 per visit.
After 12 weeks, a victim will need a medical assessment to keep receiving treatments.
For more seriously injured victims, ICBC will provide income replacement benefits of 90 per cent of up to $119,000. For self-employed people this benefit factors in the past three years of income.
McDaniel said anyone who earns more than $119,000 may purchase up to $100,000 of top-up income replacement benefits.
For what ICBC deems a “severe, permanent, or catastrophic” injury, there are benefits covering extraordinary expenses for travel, accommodation, and home and vehicle modifications where needed.
There is then personal care assistance of up to $11,628 per month if one requires 24-7 supervision and a lump sum permanent impairment benefit of $307,461 if one is catastrophically injured.
For the surviving dependents of those who have died, ICBC provides a minimum $77,889 spousal benefit and pays a dependant (such as a child) $36,994 to $69,764, depending on the dependant’s age at the time of the deceased’s death.
ICBC does not state online the maximum entitlement for a spouse but McDaniel said this depends on age and income, and it can reach as high as about $500,000.
In the event both parents die, a dependant will receive both the dependant and spousal death benefit, McDaniel said.
Enhanced Care also provides up to $10,616 per deceased, including taxes, for funeral or burial expenses.
What about the old at-fault model?
Under the old at-fault model, car accident victims could sue ICBC for bodily injuries and death, including compensation for pain and suffering.
“People had their benefits capped and the compensation a victim could seek was effectively limited by the amount of third-party liability coverage the at-fault driver had purchased,” ICBC’s outgoing CEO, David Wong, said in a letter to BIV.
“The average coverage drivers in B.C. purchased was $2 million—so anyone impacted by a crash would have to divide that total amount up, with lawyers taking up to 33 per cent in fees off the top.”
In terms of the festival incident this would mean all victims would be accessing $2 million and it stands to reason this would not be enough.
Both Wong and McDaniel did not initially raise the factor of underinsured motorist protection, which according to McDaniel was typically $1 million in 2021.
With UMP, after all other benefits are exhausted, each victim could have accessed $1 million each if their claim was not covered by the $2 million policy divided by all victims, which would be assured in the case of the Lapu-Lapu tragedy.
The wrinkle, however, is that one would need to have a policy with ICBC or live in a household with family member who holds a policy.
Had a similar tragedy occurred before 2021, anyone without UMP would likely have been with far less recourse than under the new no-fault insurance model.
Greg Phillips, president of the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C., said the vast majority of British Columbians were covered by UMP.
When asked about UMP, McDaniel said his estimate that no-fault will be better still holds true.
A key factor, said McDaniel, is that for the most serious cases, including deaths, there will be no legal fees, which could amount to 33 per cent.
And while definitive calculations are difficult, McDaniel noted the benefits under the new model come immediately and are not subject to protracted legal battles.
Phillips had noted that while there are more benefits up front, the old at-fault model also provided for benefit payments.
ICBC is not paying out as much for injuries as it once did
A key benefit espoused by the political architects of the no-fault/Enhanced Care model is that it is saving policy holders money.
ICBC states online the average cost of insurance is down 28 per cent since May 2021. Rates, meanwhile, have been frozen for six years, including next year. And ICBC has issued $110 rebates for the past two years.
A look at the most recent annual report for ICBC shows the agency paid $1.241 billion for injury claims in fiscal 2023-24, as compared with $2.986 billion in 2019-20.
Bodily injury claim payments went from $2.420 billion to $177 million, and accident and death benefits went from $566 million to $1.064 billion in the same period.
The rebates cost roughly $400 million each year.
Are the savings coming at the expense of those injured and killed?
“The overall global amount spent on injury claims in the years in the new system is lower as a global amount,” McDaniel confirmed.
“That is different from what’s paid to those who are catastrophically injured or injured in very serious ways. Those are two very different things. And then, of course, over 95 per cent of that new number goes directly to the benefit of customers.
“In the old model that was nowhere near true … a much higher percentage did not make it in the hands of people that needed it. It went to the system and the lawyers,” said McDaniel.
He said there's less compensation for very minor injuries.
“But what I've said is you can't translate that to say that the Lapu-Lapu victims will receive that same ratio, less. It's just not true,” said McDaniel.
Recent ICBC 'Enhanced Care' savings gobbled up by car damage claims
Since the provincial government stripped policyholders of the right to sue, much of the savings on injury claims has gone toward skyrocketing vehicle damage claims, also known as 'material damage' in the annual report.
In 2019-20 ICBC spent $1.614 billion on vehicle damage whereas in 2023-24 it spent $2.749 billion. Much of this rise is attributed to vehicles becoming more complex due to embedded sensors, cameras and other driver-assistance technologies, but also short-term supply chain disruptions exacerbated by the shortage of skilled labour in the car repair industry.
ICBC says it is working on a strategy to address these issues.
