Mr Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North): I rise in the House today to remind the new McGuinty government of their promise to cut auto insurance rates by 10% within 90 days of forming government -- or is it really 20%, as was mentioned during the recent election campaign by many Liberal candidates?

This morning, I read with great interest an article by the Toronto Star's Richard Brennan entitled "Drivers Fume at Rate Hikes." Mr Brennan mentions in his article that Finance Minister Greg Sorbara now claims that the 10% figure is really just an average. Try telling that to hard-working taxpayers in this province whose rates are going up by 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% more.

In September of last year, our leader Ernie Eves, who at the time was Premier of this province, warned insurance companies to lower premiums for the drivers an average of 15% or legislation would be passed to roll back rate hikes.

Richard Brennan further writes in his article, "The then government introduced regulation changes allowing companies to pass on savings to motorists, but the Liberals `sat on them' for six months and the companies went ahead and increased premiums. It wasn't until January that the Liberals started putting the breaks on premium rates."

If the Liberals meant what they said during the election, the 10% reduction would have already been in place by the end of January 2004. Not only did they break their election promise on cutting auto insurance rates, but the Liberals also tried to conceal the fact that they had recently approved a 28.5% average rate increase for the industry-run Facility Association. This is the only option for insuring drivers who cannot get coverage through regular insurers.

Then there's the question of the other 10% of the 20% rate cut that made Liberal candidates proud as peacocks during the election. Apparently, motorists were expected to deliver this 10% cut themselves by reducing their own coverage.