Care-First saves Alberta drivers $297. Riders get a 37–79% premium hike.

Starting November 1, renewal notices will show what the province’s “88% of vehicles save” headlines left out: every motorcycle rating profile goes up, some riders are already being dropped by their insurer, and the right to sue an at-fault driver disappears with the old system.

On November 1, Alberta insurers begin mailing renewal notices priced under Care-First, the no-fault-style insurance system that replaces the province’s court-based model on January 1, 2027. For most households the envelope carries good news: the Automobile Insurance Rate Board (AIRB) projects an average cut of $297, or 13.7%, for private passenger vehicles, with 88% of Alberta’s 3.1 million insured vehicles paying less. If you ride a motorcycle, your notice says the opposite. All three of the AIRB’s motorcycle rating profiles rise by at least 37%, the steepest increase of any vehicle class in the province, and the regulator’s own filings put the average motorcycle increase at 100.1%, or $445 per policy.

The headlines so far have led with the savings. The Edmonton Journal reported that 47% of vehicles save $300 or more. The province’s press releases talk about “the highest level of benefits in Canada.” Behind the savings is a transfer: injury costs are moving off car policies and onto the policies of the people most likely to get hurt, and riders are paying the difference with both their premiums and their legal rights.

Young drivers get the biggest cuts because they carried the heaviest lawsuit-risk load under the old system. Motorcycles get no cut at all, because riders were never paying for lawsuit risk in the first place. They were paying for the bike. Now they are paying for what happens to their own bodies in a crash.

Why bikes rise when everyone else saves

Under the court-based system, a badly injured rider sued the at-fault driver. The compensation came from the at-fault driver’s insurer, and the cost of those payouts, plus the lawyers on both sides, was spread through the bodily-injury portion of every car policy in the province. A rider’s own premium mainly covered the motorcycle itself, with property damage, theft, and a modest slice of injury coverage. Riders are involved in relatively few collisions, and bikes rarely injure anyone else, so that slice stayed thin. AIRB’s profile report notes the average Alberta motorcycle premium was $412 in 2025, and had been falling for years once adjusted for inflation.

Care-First breaks that arrangement. Injury claims now go through the injured person’s own insurer, with unlimited medical and rehabilitation coverage for eligible treatment, income replacement up to $125,000 a year until retirement, and a permanent-impairment benefit up to $295,000. Motorcycle collisions are far more likely to produce serious injuries than car collisions, and the premiums rise to cover them.

Oliver Wyman’s March report, prepared for the AIRB, projected “direct premium increases of approximately $367 for motorcycles,” lifting the required average motorcycle premium for full coverage to $920.24, while estimating savings of roughly $337 for commercial vehicles and hundreds of dollars per year for cars. The filings insurers later submitted, and the AIRB approved, came in close to that forecast.

What riders get back, and what they lose

The province’s case is that riders are not just paying more: they are buying into the richest accident-benefits package in Canada, and the benefit numbers back it up. If you are hurt in 2027, your own insurer pays, treatment is not capped for eligible care, and income replacement runs up to $125,000 a year until retirement, where the old accident-benefits floor was far lower. There is no lawsuit to finance while you recover, and the government says benefits start within weeks rather than years.

Some riders are not getting a renewal at all

In March, the Alberta Motor Association began sending non-renewal letters to a slice of its motorcycle customers, including riders with clean records. AMA told CTV News Edmonton the change “affects a very small number of motorists who represent a significantly higher injury risk,” less than two per cent of its policies, aimed at “less experienced riders, individuals with traffic convictions or prior claims, and/or those operating high-performance motorcycles.”

The province’s Office of Treasury Board and Finance insists AMA assured it the decision “is not associated with the transition to Care-First.” The letters themselves cite the new legislation as the reason. In one r/alberta thread, a rider with no claims, three other vehicles and his home insurance at AMA described the notice he received; the posts that followed include a father whose son’s 900cc cruiser was dropped while his own 750cc was renewed, and a wife whose husband, a rider in his 40s on a 650cc Kawasaki whose only claim was a theft, got the same letter.

CTV News Edmonton said AMA was the only insurer it could confirm was non-renewing motorcycle policies ahead of the switch. But the industry comes into the transition weakened: Alberta’s insurers lost a combined $1.2 billion in 2024, premiums rose 8.7% last year, and two insurers already left the private passenger market in 2025. Brandon Pritchard of Edmonton’s After Dark Motorcycles told CTV one customer dodged the non-renewal only to see his premium jump by more than $1,000, and switched companies. “Is it just going to be that you can’t insure a motorcycle in Alberta anymore?” he asked. “I hate to say it, but people will just resort to riding with no insurance.”

In mid-September the AIRB stopped accepting rate filings that would increase consumer premiums until it issues new guidelines later this year, which caps further Care-First-driven hikes for now. Nor has the regulator announced any backstop for riders who cannot find an insurer willing to write their policy at any price.

The renewal notice is the decision point

Every Alberta motorcycle policy that takes effect on or after January 1, 2027 will carry Care-First pricing, and notices start arriving November 1. A renewal in March 2027 reflects the same system. If you ride in Alberta, the next three months are the window to shop before Care-First pricing takes effect.

Mike Cooper, who has ridden motorcycles in Alberta for more than 45 years, put the rider’s view of the risk math to CTV this way: “Most of the accidents that I know of were actually caused by car drivers.” Under Care-First, when one of those accidents happens, it is the rider’s own insurer writing the cheque, and the rider’s own premium that paid for it. The government calls the system fairer, faster, and cheaper, and for the 88% of vehicles paying less, it is. Riders sit outside that bargain: this winter, roughly every motorcycle in the province gets a renewal notice with a higher bill attached.

Sources

• AIRB, Care-First Premium Impacts, September 8, 2026, with the Care-First Premium Impact by Profile and Care-First Consumer Premium Impact reports.
• Insurance Business Magazine, Care-First pricing hits Alberta renewal notices from November 1, October 4, 2026.
• Edmonton Journal, Alberta’s new insurance regime will see savings for 88 per cent of vehicles: rate board, September 10, 2026.
• Government of Alberta, Care-First auto insurance (benefit amounts and right-to-sue rules).
• CTV News Edmonton, AMA stopping some motorcycle insurance ahead of new provincial rules, March 23, 2026.
• Insurance Portal, Premium savings expected under care-first program in Alberta (Oliver Wyman actuarial costing figures), April 6, 2026.
• Insurance Bureau of Canada, news release on AIRB reports, September 9, 2026.
• Rider non-renewal reports: r/alberta thread, March 20, 2026.
• Insurance Business Magazine, Care-First savings bigger than expected, AIRB confirms, September 10, 2026 (market losses, insurer exits).

Figures are AIRB-approved filing averages and standardized rating profiles as of September 8, 2026. AIRB staff have cautioned that projections are not guarantees; individual renewals depend on insurer, coverage, record and vehicle. Profile dollar values marked “about” were read from the AIRB’s published chart.