Manitoba Public Insurance rate-payers will be seeing a small bump on their bills starting April 1.
The public insurer had actually applied to the Public Utilities Board for a rate decrease last fall — and it was approved.
But in a release Wednesday the PUB said when the newly approved decrease is offset against the removal of a previously approved five per cent capital release — which led to one-time cheques being sent out to all customers last year — the change will actually mean an average increase in premiums of 1.54 per cent for drivers.
In its release, the PUB said it noticed big jumps in MPI’s staffing expenditures, with more than 400 new jobs added since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
An IT renewal project at the public insurer that was initially budgeted to cost $106.8 million when announced in 2020 is now budgeted for between $257 and $290 million.
The PUB has asked for several reports on Project Nova to make sure the money’s being put to good use.
