Industry committee  I can verify that with the significant training we do on an ongoing basis with member insurance companies, one of the first things we train them on is that you never go on a fishing expedition. You have to have reasonable grounds, acting as a reasonable, prudent person would, and

Industry committee  One area that jumps out is organized auto theft. This has significant impact. We pulled $8.8 million worth of stolen vehicles at the ports of Montreal and Halifax last year alone. We're well over $55 million since we started this in 2009 at those two ports. The point I'm gettin

Industry committee  I'm not sure I understand the question. You're mentioning that it's just a brief civil matter of some kind...? Perhaps you could be more specific.

Industry committee  Here's how it actually works. They're not going to look further if they don't have...as a reasonable prudent person with reasonable grounds to believe that a possible fraud exists. So unless those grounds are there, they're not going to be contacting us or another insurer. We wou

Industry committee  I can tell you that in a study we're involved in for which we provided data, organized insurance crime itself in Ontario was estimated to be as high as $1.6 billion. Last year alone, as I said, in ongoing investigations we investigated 52 suggested insurance crime rings and we ac

Industry committee  Absolutely.

Industry committee  I think the key point with the data analytics is that it will raise almost immediately, once the claims information is in the system, whether there is a social network and whether it's a heads-up to the insurer to say, “You have to look into this now, further, rather than automat

Industry committee  We've run into a real difficult time getting police to take these investigations. First of all, they're only going to take high-priority investigations, for one thing. They're overloaded. They want to deal with the more serious crimes of personal harm—assault, attempted murder, m

Industry committee  I would say it is certainly in the right direction, and it is a positive way of moving forward. Obviously, if the insurers can't contact each other, they can't identify the social networks that develop within organized criminal rings. That's the key. Right now, yes, it's a manual

Industry committee  Absolutely.

Industry committee  Yes: organized crime is extremely creative, and they keep changing their approach. They take advantage of the fact that insurers are unable, currently, to share information with one another, and that is why they are ahead of the curve.

Industry committee  Yes: $31,785 is the average accident benefit payment per person in Ontario.

Industry committee  Well, I think the example I gave is.... The insurance industry is quite well trained in terms of first contact and the type of information they need to receive. They're just going to start acquiring what I gave you in terms of certain information: the time of the accident, where

Industry committee  I've been in the insurance industry for 35 years as a senior investigator and a solicitor and negotiator, so I'm very familiar with the general practices. An underwriter will look at prior accidents. They won't necessarily be contacting the other insurer for facts. They'll see th

Industry committee  Actually, no, and I have to say that this is a concern. If an injury is not reported at the scene of an accident...and these individuals intentionally do not report, in a lot of cases, at the scene of the accident and will go to a collision reporting centre afterward. At that poi