The Minister responsible for ICBC under the previous BC Liberal government thinks changes announced this week for handling repairs won’t have the desired impact.

Attorney General Dave Eby has announced that ICBC will be ranking autobody shops based on performance, which it says will save on administration costs and increase transparency for people getting repairs.

Former Transportation Minister, Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone, says there’s always opportunities to improve procurement, but says this new system won’t do much to keep insurance rates affordable for drivers.

“In the grand scope of the challenges facing ICBC, a corporation that’s lost $2.5 billion dollars under the NDP in the last two-and-a-half years, this measure is not going to do anything to bring rates down for motorists,” Stone says.

“This particular suggestion, I don’t recall was ever put on the table when I was the minister responsible. That said, we did implement a series of changes to procurement to reduce costs at the corporation.”

The new program will start on Feb. 3 for collision and March 2 for glass, and the actual system for ranking those shops will come later once