Phillips critic role focuses on insurance and pensions

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on July 8, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

With a bigger Opposition, NDP leader Rachel Notley is utilizing more of her elected talent to keep watch over the UCP government for the next four years.
Shannon Phillips, MLA for Lethbridge West, is seeing a slightly new role in Notley’s shadow cabinet, serving as Finance critic with a focus on insurance and pensions. Samir Kayande, MLA for Calgary Elbow, is the Finance critic for fiscal responsibility.
In a telephone interview recently, Phillips said “we have elected the largest Opposition in Alberta’s history and we have so many incredibly competent, diverse MLAs ready to get to work representing Albertans and so really we wanted to make sure that everyone had a substantial role in the legislature holding the UCP to account.
“Finance is a pretty big file” and in the past four years there’s been two parts to it, said Phillips, “the budget pieces, the auditor general’s reports, the annual reports, the fiscal responsibility side.”
And there have been issues, she said, that the UCP has created with car insurance as well as a threat to pull Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan.
“So in order to make sure that we have the most effective representation possible, Rachel gave two roles in Finance because it is a really large file. I was also the chair of Public Accounts, meaning I was reading and engaging with every annual report of every department plus the Treasury Board and Finance one which is several hundred pages long. So having two critics doing that role . . .we are better able then to ensure that we are supporting each other as a team.
“The job I’ve been given is on the one side, the CPP – Albertans have said fairly clearly to the UCP if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. And it ain’t broke. It’s one of the best pension funds in the world. All of us have been paying into it our entire working lives. It is an extremely well-managed pension fund and delivers us affordable predictable benefits without political interference. Those are Albertans’ priorities and they are mine in terms of retirement security,” Phillips added.
What is broken and needs to be fixed is the amount Albertans pay for insurance premiums, she said.
Those premiums have contributed greatly to stress on Albertans as they pay their monthly bills, she said.
Phillips said when the NDP was in government, it capped the rate of insurance increases to five per cent.
“Insurance companies who are extremely profitable, they are very large multinational corporations who make money hand over fist from premiums, they said ‘oh the sky is going to fall.’ The sky never did fall.”
She said the NDP has to be thoughtful about proposing alternatives to make sure Albertans have the right insurance products for their cars, homes, non-profits, sports organizations, city infrastructure, et cetera.
“There are crises of insurance affordability kind of across the economy.”
The MLA said a thoughtful eye needs to be put on insurance and the UCP has come up with no solutions “to keeping our pocketbooks protected as well as our communities strong.”
She said Alberta needs more affordable insurance products for individuals, businesses and non-profits as well as farmers right across the economy and there can’t be a strong economy without a government keeping an eye on those costs.
In late January, the previous UCP government put a pause on increases to insurance rates for private passenger vehicles until the end of 2023.
The government stated at the time that some drivers could still see rate increases this year due to a range of factors including previously approved hikes, changes to driving records or insurance profiles.

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