When was the last time you got a rebate from your auto insurance company?

Not only do consumers in Saskatchewan get the cheapest bundle of utilities in Canada - including either the lowest, or second lowest auto insurance rates, but now Saskatchewanians get money back from their insurer - an average rebate of about $180.

People in Saskatchewan get their basic auto insurance from SGI (Saskatchewan Government Insurance). That insurance can be thousands of dollars less in a year than other provinces. For example: In Saskatchewan the average premium in 2003 was $904, while the average consumer in Alberta pays $1,853. A consumer in Lloydminster, Alberta could pay up to $8,980 more annually for auto insurance than if they lived literally across the street in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. Auto insurance premiums when compared with Saskatchewan cost twice as much in Alberta and almost three times more in Newfoundland or Ontario.

AUTO INSURANCE RATE COMPARISON STUDY - Consumers Association of Canada (2003)

"Saskatchewan’s auto insurance rates are currently the lowest in Canada based on a comparison of vehicle insurance costs for Saskatchewan’s 34 most popular vehicles based on similar coverages."

Saskatchewan Auto Fund Proposal for Rate Adjustment January 2007

"The rebate applies to both privately-owned and commercial vehicles and will be calculated on a customer’s vehicle insurance premium, prior to any discounts or surcharges earned through the Safe Driver Recognition or Business Recognition programs. Rebate cheques will be mailed to customers in mid-April, with an average rebate of about $180.

SGI has also applied to the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel to generally reduce rates by five per cent with rate rebalancing, which would mean about 448,000 Saskatchewan vehicles (53 per cent) would see a reduction in their rates. The average decrease would be $68.

“Saskatchewan motorists already enjoy the lowest auto insurance rates in the country, and now SGI is applying to reduce them further,”"

Saskatchewan Government Insurance news release

Blue Cheese Dressing as environmental hazard

""There was blue cheese - a lot of it," said Robert Becker, fire apparatus engineer and hazardous materials specialist for Riverside County Fire Department."

"Emergency personnel worked through the night to right dozens of toppled railcars and clean up a flood of salad dressing after a train derailed Tuesday afternoon near North Shore."

The Desert Sun

CBC

San Jose Mercury

Chávez alcohol ban outrages Venezuelans

"This is not the first time Chávez, 52, has tried to focus Venezuelans on recreational activities that do not revolve around drinking.

Before last year's presidential election in December, Chávez, describing beer trucks as a "degeneration of society," ordered the National Guard to prevent the delivery vehicles from selling beer on the streets of poor neighborhoods. He has since imposed a 35 percent import duty on imported whiskey, a favorite lunchtime drink of many people here."

"Chávez, a teetotaler, appears to have touched a nerve with the ban on alcohol sales, which initially confused many people and caught them off guard.

His pronouncement on politics and the direction of what he describes as a "Bolivarian revolution" are generally taken in stride; policies that immediately affect the rituals of daily life are another matter."

International Herald Tribune articel

Chavez should be careful with revolutionary decrees like this. He should have probably been more incremental than this. I cite Nicolo Machiavelli in The Prince

"And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them. Thus it happens that whenever those who are hostile have the opportunity to attack they do it like partisans, whilst the others defend lukewarmly, in such wise that the prince is endangered along with them."