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What's New
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Newfoundland to prohibit certain Insurance Rating
factors
Bill 16 An Act to amend the Insurance Companies Act
received First Reading in the Newfoundland legislature.
It would enable the implementation of forthcoming
regulatory changes regarding underwriting, rating and
market conduct practices for property and casualty
insurance companies and would prevent insurance
companies from declining to issue or renew a contract
based on the use of specified rating factors.
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British Columbia Finance- Change to Director Position
BC advises that Joann Cain has left the position of
Director, Financial and Corporate Sector Policy Branch.
Mary Tkachyk has been appointed as Acting Director for
the next 6 months. |
National - Revised Privacy Legislation Introduced
Industry Minister Tony Clement introduced an amended
version of PIPEDA called the Safeguarding Canadians'
Personal Information Act (C-29). Key changes in Bill
C-29 include:
Security breach disclosure provision- To address public
concerns about data breaches involving personal
information, PIPEDA proposes a new requirement for
organizations to report material data breaches to the
Privacy Commissioner of Canada and to notify individuals
where there is a risk of harm.
Definition of business contact information which
includes business email addresses
Establishment of a business transaction exception that
permits use and disclosure of personal information
without consent in business transactions to facilitate
mergers and acquisitions.
New exception for the collection, use, and disclosure of
personal information contained in a witness statement
related to an insurance claim
Law Enforcement- If a business has disclosed personal
information to law enforcement, the bill includes a
provision prohibiting the business from advising the
individual that his personal information has been
disclosed.
The Bill can be found
here
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National-New Anti-Spam Legislation Introduced
On May 25, the government introduced Bill C-28, the
Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act which is largely
unchanged from the previous Bill C-27 (the Electronic
Commerce Protection Act), which passed the House of
Commons last year. Bill C-28 has all party support. Bill
C-28 can be found
here
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National-Internet Promotion of Insurance on Bank
Websites
On May 27, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced plans
to tighten regulations that prohibit the promotion of
non-authorized insurance on the web pages of Canadian
banks. Banks are permitted to promote authorized
insurance products, such as credit and travel-related
insurance but are prohibited from promoting
non-authorized products such as life, property and
casualty insurance on any bank web page.
The regime would:
Prohibit the promotion of, or web links to,
non-authorized insurance from all banking web pages.
Allow only the corporate web page of a bank, where no
financial products are promoted, to display links to
insurance subsidiaries dealing in non-authorized
insurance.
Draft regulations will be pre-published in the Canada
Gazette, Part I, giving stakeholders an opportunity to
provide comments.
The announcement can be found
here
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New Brunswick-New Minister in charge of Insurance
On May 10, 2010 Bernard LeBlanc, MLA for Memramcook-Lakeville-Dieppe,
returned to cabinet as Minister of Justice and Consumer
Affairs as well as minister responsible for public
engagement. Minister Leblanc took over the portfolio in
January from Michael Murphy, Kelly Lamrock assumed the
portfolio in February.
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Manitoba-New Consumer protection 5 year plan “Let’s Make
A deal”
Manitoba has announced a new consumer protection
initiative called “Let’s make a deal’. It can be found
here
The initiative has 3 areas that affect insurance as
follows:
- Insurance Act
Review
Manitoba plans a review of the Insurance Act to
update it and to make it consistent with the new
Acts in Alberta and BC. The province has done some
preliminary work on the Insurance Act review and
will be putting together a discussion paper that
will likely come out in the fall. One key matter to
be covered is the use of plain language.
- Incidental
Selling of Insurance (ISI)
The province will be considering whether or not to
ISI implement regulation.
- Credit
Scoring
The province will be reviewing the matter of the use
of credit information for rating and underwriting
purposes.
Other areas that
may be related to insurance include:
- Major Product
Warranty Disclosure: Manitoba will work with
businesses and consumers to ensure consumers are
better informed about statutory and optional
warranties that may be offered to them when they
make certain purchases.
- Ban on
Negative Option Marketing: On May 11, the Manitoba
government introduced Bill 34, The Consumer
Protection Amendment Act (Negative Option Marketing
and Enhanced Remedies). This Bill prohibits negative
option marketing, which occurs when a supplier
provides a consumer with goods or services that the
consumer did not ask for; and requires the consumer
to pay for the goods or services unless the consumer
informs the supplier that the consumer does not want
them. A consumer is not required to pay for goods or
services received under a negative option marketing
scheme. The Bill also increases the maximum fine
under The Consumer Protection Act to $300,000, or
three times the amount a person convicted of an
offence obtained as a result of the offence,
whichever is more. The Bill can be found
here
- Better Rights
and Information for Credit and Other Reports: The
information in personal reports, such as credit
reports, can affect major events in a person’s life
such as loan and mortgage applications, tenancy
agreements and potential employment. Legislation
will be introduced to provide better protection for
consumers, as well as clear and fair rules for
reporting agencies and those who rely on the reports
to make important decisions. Guidelines will be
developed to help people understand their credit
reports.
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Federal –
Draft Canadian Securities Act Released
On May 26, 2010, The Government of Canada released the proposed
Canadian Securities Act; a step towards establishing a Canadian
securities regulator. Canada is the only major industrialized
country that lacks a national securities regulator. This would be a
voluntary regime, allowing provinces and territories to opt in.
The proposed Canadian Securities Act harmonizes existing provincial
securities legislation in the form of a single statute. It proposes
significant improvements in terms of governance, adjudication,
financial stability, and regulatory and criminal enforcement, and
provides a wide scope of authority to regulate financial instruments
and participants in capital markets.
All provinces and territories are participants with the exception of
Alberta and Quebec. The new regulatory organization will be an
agency which will use the expertise and infrastructure of local
offices whose staff members will make key decisions that reflect
local market demands.
The Transition Office will release a transition plan during the
summer. The Government has referred the proposed Act to the Supreme
Court of Canada for its opinion on whether or not it is within the
legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada. Should a
favourable ruling be received, the federal government intends to
introduce it for adoption in Parliament in the normal legislative
process. The new Act can be found at
here |
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