Market delayed

Council puts off going to the market for insurance coverage for another year

The County spends a lot of money on insurance—$834,610 last year—up 12 per cent over the year before. Three per cent of every dollar raised in taxes goes to pay the County’s insurance bill.

Last year, facing its third major increase in as many years, council agreed to pay the premium but vowed it would go to the marketplace in 2012 and seek competitive bids for its insurance coverage— something it hasn’t done since at least 2006. But last Thursday, council quietly agreed to renew its insurance coverage for another year—until June 2013. No questions. No debate. No vote . The County’s finance chief Susan Turnbull explained her department simply ran out of time to prepare tender documents in time for this year.

“Our workload precluded it,” said Turnbull. “So we delayed it a year. Our plan is to put it out to tender once every term of council.”

It was a decision made somewhat easier to swallow as the premium for this year’s insurance coverage actually declined 1.7 per cent to $820,694. Still over the last four years the municipality’s insurance coverage, including this year’s decline, is up on average six per cent per year.