CENTRAL MANITOULIN—Citing a sign of the times, Central Manitoulin council passed a motion to purchase an insurance policy to cover users of the municipality’s rental facilities.
The motion came upon the recommendation of the Property Committee and reads: “That staff be directed to purchase a facility user group policy for the rental facilities so that eligible facility user groups and activities may have the option to access insurance coverage through this policy and, further, that the policy fee per use be added to the rental invoice for those accessing the policy.”
Councillor Derek Stephens noted that the need for such a policy is driven by the insurance companies. “It used to be that these user groups were covered under our municipal policy,” he noted.
By having the municipality purchase the policy, the cost to user groups would also likely be halved, it was noted.
“Insurance companies never seem to lose money,” noted Councillor Stephens, “and they seem to find an insurance for everything. Hopefully, we can keep these rates as low as we can.”
There are a number of activities, such as bachelorette parties, that would be excluded from being under the municipal policy and would still have to obtain their own insurance naming the municipality in those cases.
“It’s a whole societal change,” said Councillor Dale Scott. “I’ve seen huge changes in liability class actions over the last decade, but you go back to 20 years ago. If you slipped on the neighbour’s property, possibly you weren’t wearing the right footwear—you should have known. You should have walked around the ice and not across the ice patch—but now, everything gets sued for everything.”
It was suggested that a two-million-dollar policy might not be enough—with many companies insisting on five million in coverage.
