Right in the centre - Never let bureaucrats get control
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- Published on Thursday, May 29, 2025
By Ken Waddell
Nepawa Banner & Press
A Monday report in the Winnipeg Free Press, stated that “In an email to staff members, Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) chief executive officer Satvir Jatana said the Crown corporation has decided to shut down the computer program, used for special risk-extension (SRE) renewals and new policies for commercial customers, and return to the paper-based system it previously employed.
”That decision would not come as a surprise to Autopac customers nor the many insurance brokers who are called upon multiple times a day to solve MPI screw-ups. I have personally seen Autopac agents struggle with the computer and phone calls to figure out what should have been a simple question about a deductible clause on an SRE policy.
Autopac has been messing with regular insurance and SRE for years now and I found out that the “regular” insurance branch doesn’t coordinate with the SRE people even when they work in the same building.
The Free Press also reported “Project Nova had been budgeted to cost $107 million when it was announced in 2020, but that price tag had swollen to $435 million earlier this year.”
The problem with Project Nova and the MPI leadership is that they simply didn’t think things through. Having customers access a computer based on-line self-enrolling, self reporting insurance application and claim system made no sense at all. Having customers apply for renewals or claims by themselves, without assistance from an agent was bound to fail. Customers might only access the computer system once or twice a year, not enough to get a real handle on how it all works. And if insurance coverage applied for by this self-administered model proved to be inadequate or defective, then where would the liability fall?
Applying on-line for your own insurance coverage or claim makes about as much sense as customers getting behind the counter at a restaurant and cooking their own meal. It might work, but only until there’s a problem and problems will happen and at the worst possible time.
Unfortunately, we live in a very lazy world where bureaucracy assumes every problem can be solved by clicking a few keys online. The assumption is that online solves everything, no explanation needed, nobody needs to help out and all the problems disappear into thin air. Business doesn’t work that way.
On a side note, this online-click-a-button approach to every problem drives me crazy. When we got new phones a few years back at our office, the sales people were very good but couldn’t understand why I didn’t want a press one for English, press two for French. Why didn’t I want music when people are on hold? Why didn’t I want to have a press one for sales, press two for sports etc.? Emphatic, “No!” All I want is a few phones lines that can be answered by our front desk staff and if the people on front desk are tied up, anybody in the building can answer the phone, hopefully answer the question or take a message. The only time our answering machine kicks in should be when there’s no one in our office. In contrast, banks, credit unions, Hydro, Bell-MTS and WCG, and almost all companies, have these multiple choice phone systems which makes me wonder, does anybody actually work at these places or do they all hide out in the coffee room hoping customers will go away?
The above little rant about phones doesn’t directly affect the Autopac fiasco but it does illustrate that Autopac, and many other entities, figure that everything can be handled online and without an agent or an employee actually making contact with their customers.
Large companies, including Autopac have to realize that their incompetence and indifference with customer service always causes unneccesary spending. In Autopac’s case, it was well over $400 million of “our” money wasted in a project that “we” knew wouldn’t work.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the newspaper staff.
