He pays $300 a month for car insurance. Higher rates for immigrants are an 'injustice,' advocate says
CBC
When 26-year-old Hameed Yousufzai came to Canada from Afghanistan two years ago, he quickly realized he needed a car to get around the city of St. Catharines, Ont., where he settled.
When he first bought a car, he paid about $450 a month for car insurance.
Yousufzai had been driving for seven years, but says no insurance company he checked with would take that history into account.
"This is not actually fair for us," said Yousufzai, who needs a car to get to his job at nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake because public transit isn't reliable.
"I am quite familiar with driving, with no accidents or with no tickets in my whole life."
Yousufzai is among many new immigrants who say they're paying higher car insurance costs because their previous driving experience isn't factored into their monthly rates.
He wants insurance companies to change their policies, especially because the cost of living is already so high.
Yousufzai says he has to work to cover his expenses in Canada and support his whole family in Afghanistan, while also paying the high cost of car insurance.
The high cost of auto insurance for immigrants isn't just an issue in Ontario.
In Calgary, new immigrants are also struggling to pay high rates. At the Centre for Newcomers, which had about 50,000 people use their services last year, the issue almost always comes up, according to CEO Anila Umar.
"This is an injustice," she said. "You basically have to decide, 'Am I going to pay for this car in order to get to work to make the money? Or am I going to pay for food?' "
Umar says Calgary is not well connected enough by public transit for people to rely on it to get to work. She notes it can take several hours to get from one end of the city to the other.
"We really do need cars in order to survive here in Calgary," she said.
Yousufzai says he tried a variety of methods to bring the $450 a month premium down, including buying a much older car. When that didn't work, he decided to downgrade his coverage to what's known as "one-way" insurance — which cost him close to $200 a month. In the case of a collision, one-way insurance means the company would only cover damages for the other car, not his own.
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