A new report from Alberta’s Superintendent of Insurance is rekindling concerns about the stability of the province’s auto insurance market, with fresh data showing widespread losses and evidence of insurers scaling back or leaving the province.
According to the Superintendent’s 2024 annual report, property and casualty insurers selling auto in Alberta paid out roughly 18% more in claims and expenses than they collected in premiums, for a combined loss of more than $1.2 billion on auto business last year. Thirtyfive auto carriers in the province ended 2024 in the red on that line.
The watchdog also warns that pressures are set to intensify, citing inflation, rising bodily injury severity, elevated vehicle theft and weatherrelated losses as cost drivers that are expected to keep outpacing Alberta’s “good driver” rate cap.
Alberta has been under some form of rate intervention since 2023, first with a freeze on new rate filings and then with a cap on increases for good drivers – set at 3.7% in 2024 and raised to 7.5% for 2025 and 2026.
Industry voices say the gap between capped premiums and rising claims costs is already reshaping the market.
The Superintendent’s report notes that several insurers have exited the Alberta auto space altogether, while others have pulled back by tightening underwriting or limiting new business. Brokers and motorists are increasingly reporting difficulty placing coverage at all, or finding the limits and options they need, particularly in higherrisk segments.
“This new report confirms once again that, rather than helping Albertans, the rate cap is harming the competitive market that consumers depend on,” said Aaron Sutherland, vicepresident, Pacific and Western, at the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), in a statement responding to the findings.
Sutherland renewed IBC’s push for the province’s “CareFirst” reforms, now slated for 2027, which aim to overhaul injury benefits and tackle what the bureau describes as “skyhigh legal costs” in the system. IBC argues that legal and claimshandling expenses are escalating far faster than the 7.5% cap, leaving carriers little room to absorb risk without retrenching.
Beyond auto, the Superintendent’s report also highlights mounting weatherrelated strain in home and property lines, pointing to billiondollar losses from the 2024 Jasper wildfire and a severe Calgary hailstorm. Property insurers, it found, paid out about 26% more than they took in on home and property premiums last year.
For Alberta’s auto market, however, the immediate fear is that continued losses under a capped regime will accelerate insurer withdrawals, reduce competition and choice, and ultimately make it harder – not easier – for drivers to secure affordable, adequate coverage.
