Vaughn Palmer: Lorne Doerkson has his first big problem of the campaign

VICTORIA — B.C. Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson was in the first week of the election campaign when he was asked about the province’s no-fault auto insurance scheme.

The question was timely. Premier David Eby’s snap election call had prematurely terminated the work of a legislature committee that was holding hearings on the failings of no-fault.

It put a stop to testimony from unfortunates who had been victimized a second time by the ICBC bureaucracy and its heartless, take-it-or-leave-it settlements for catastrophic injuries.

What was Doerkson’s view of Eby’s ICBC-run no-fault scheme?

“We’re considering an auto insurance policy,” replied the new Conservative leader. “There’s certainly been some challenges with no-fault insurance, but we’ll come back to that another day.”

Doerkson said that on Monday, Sept. 28.

The date matters because the very next day he laid out where the Conservative party stood on no-fault in a letter to the private Insurance Bureau of Canada, the Trial Lawyers Association, the Law Society, and the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association.

In contrast to Doerkson’s we-are-working-on-it to reporters, his Sept. 29 letter to the private insurers and lawyers went into a lot of detail about a Conservative plan to makeover auto insurance in B.C.

“We’ll replace the NDP’s no-fault ICBC scheme with a hybrid system,” wrote Doerkson. “Accident victims will get back the right to recover for their serious injuries, and government will get out of the legal profession’s business.”

All this would happen “in the first year” of a new Conservative government.

Moreover, “everything is on the table, including opening auto insurance to private competition to drive down auto insurance rates.”

But one thing was “not up for debate” according to Doerkson: “People seriously hurt by reckless drivers deserve their day in an independent court, not just an online tribunal staffed by government appointees.”

He closed with assurances that new legislation would be built “with the people who know the system best,” including — surprise, surprise — the very lawyers and private insurers who were in receipt of the letter.

He also added a bonus clause for the lawyers: “We’ll repeal the NDP’s 2024 Legal Professions Act changes that undermine the profession’s independence and self-governance.”

The Conservative leader acknowledged at the outset of his letter that all this “matters to your members,” adding, almost as an afterthought, “and to British Columbians.”

But pointedly, he only spelled out what he would do on auto insurance to the self-interested members of those four groups.

There was no comparable sharing of details in a media release, news conference or open letter to the general public.

British Columbians only learned of the commitments Doerkson was making on their behalf when a copy of his letter was leaked to Move Up, the union representing ICBC employees, which released the contents Tuesday.