Good morning. I’m Mariya Postelnyak, The Globe’s consumer affairs reporter, and lately that involves untangling how tariffs sneak into your grocery bill, calling out companies caught red-handed for maple-washing and road-testing everyday consumer struggles – such as trying to dodge Amazon (which is embarrassingly difficult).
Another big part of the job is building out tools and guides that help Canadians stay on track with their finances. And if the driving puns didn’t give it away, that’s what we set out to do with our Big Guide to Auto Insurance. More on that below, but first:
In the news
G7: Finance ministers for the Group of Seven countries, including the U.S. and Canada, are wrapping up their meeting in Banff, Alta., today. The leaders met during a period of trade tension over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on global trading partners.
Labour: Canada Post rejects union request for bargaining pause, offers wage hike as strike deadline nears
Retail: Some Hudson’s Bay workers could lose disability benefits. This Ontario bill could have protected them
ESG: Canada Pension Plan abandons net-zero target
In the know
How a Canadian suit maker got slammed by Trump’s China tariffs
- Who: Despite shipping all its products from Mississauga, men’s clothing retailer Spier & Mackay has faced U.S. tariffs as high as 170 per cent this month.
- What: Selling a standard navy suit to American customers went from roughly US$498 before tax, to US$1,345 and now US$772. Not that they could control the prices.
- Why: Because that suit is stitched from 100-per-cent wool and, more importantly, is made in China. Other Canadian companies that make products in China and sell to the U.S. have been similarly sideswiped.
- Also read: Trump tariffs face legal challenge as U.S. states seek to reverse border levies
Illustration by Rey Gagnon
In focus
Auto insurance sticker shock
Fuelled by car theft, rising repair costs and even extreme weather, car insurance premiums have been soaring across the country – as much as 12 per cent year-over-year as of last fall.
Different factors coalesce to deliver the startling quote from your insurance provider that leaves you staring like a deer in headlights. But some elements weigh way more heavily than others.
Consider this: A 24-year-old male driver in Toronto with a clean record driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck shells out about $500 a month or $6,000 a year. That’s $2,400 more than his peers in Ottawa and double what any of his friends in Kingston might pay.
Using data from RATESDOTCA, an insurance comparison platform, my visual and data colleagues Jesse Tahirali and Chen Wang built an interactive tool that estimates your premium based on a number of different factors and shows you exactly what’s weighing on your rate.
Below is what I learned in the process of building out our tool. When you’re done reading, take our interactive tool for a test drive yourself.
By the numbers
If you needed an excuse to ditch the city and start life anew in a rural hamlet, here it is: Auto insurance premiums in densely-populated urban areas can be more than twice those in rural areas, according to Steve Cohen, the vice-president of insurance and chief underwriting officer at RATESDOTCA.
While location has always weighed heavily on car insurance premiums, it was jarring to learn just how big a difference it could make. Someone moving to Toronto from Ottawa or Kingston would see their auto insurance premiums shoot up by 57 to 85 per cent.
But soaring premiums are packing the biggest punch for young male drivers. An 18-year-old man pays 30 to 45 per cent more, on average, than a woman the same age. (Though once he turns 25, gender stops playing a material role.)
Traffic violations are also a bigger hit to your premium than you might imagine. While not all traffic tickets come with demerit points on your licence – you won’t get one in Ontario for going 15 kilometres an hour or less over the speed limit – that ticket will still weigh on your insurance premium.
Expect your rate to climb 10 per cent for a first minor traffic conviction, such as speeding. For your second, be ready for another 10 to 15-per-cent hit. And if you’re caught using your cellphone while driving (something 25 per cent of Canadians admit to doing), expect a chilling spike of 50 per cent or more.
Change might be coming
Ontario’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority is testing a new system to rethink how geography affects auto insurance rates.
In the past, moving between rating zones (say, from Orangeville to Whitby) could cause your premium to spike or dip. Now, even moves within the same town might shift your premium.
How to lower your premium: fact vs. fiction
While having a solid credit score can lower your rate in some provinces, others explicitly ban the practice of using credit scores, including Ontario and Newfoundland. But insurance providers that offer this perk also told The Globe they do not penalize drivers with low scores.
Experts also shared that while you can shave as much as $1,000 or more off your annual premium by installing anti-theft equipment, manufacturer-installed tracking devices usually won’t count toward reducing that surcharge.
Most Ontario providers, for example, want you to install Tag, a brand of wireless tracking devices that’s swept through the Canadian market since it emerged about 15 years ago.
A surprising tidbit I learned: People on the fence about saying their “I dos” might want to consider that married couples can see lower insurance premiums with some providers. That said, you don’t need to buy a white dress and go down to city hall. The savings can apply to common-law couples too, experts told me.
Read the full piece for more expert advice and to learn about the unexpected culprits behind those soaring premiums.
Charted
A record-breaking run
British Columbia’s Fraser River is on track to see a massive run of pink salmon this year, possibly the greatest since recordkeeping began. Pinks have long been a part of life for the First Nations up the coast.
Bookmarked
On our reading list
Spring: May brings a chance to reset in the Ontario cottage market.
Summer: Turns out the July federal tax cut has some fine print.
Fall: Emotional well-being. Fall prevention. Chair yoga has a lot to offer people of all ages.
Morning update
Global markets were mostly negative as traders fretted about the U.S. debt load after U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax-cut bill passed in the House of Representatives.
Wall Street futures were mixed while and TSX futures were flat.
Oil prices dropped after a report said OPEC+ is discussing a production increase for July, stoking concerns about supply and demand. Brent futures lost US$1.05 to US$63.86 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 98 US cents at US60.59.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.93 per cent in midday trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.75 per cent, Germany’s DAX lost 0.84 per cent and France’s CAC 40 was down 0.93 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.84 per cent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed down 1.19 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded at 72.09 US cents.