The Consumers’ Association of Canada today called on the Ontario Government to protect consumers and businesses by calling a public inquiry into the practices of the insurance industry.

“For the last decade regulators and politicians have sat back and done nothing to protect consumers from practices such as the exercise of secret commissions to pervert competition in the marketplace,” said Bruce Cran, CAC president, in a release. “What is needed is for the Ontario government to fully investigate the practices of this industry and the harm inflicted on consumers and businesses.”

New York attorney general Eliot Sptizer has indicated his investigation into what he has called “widespread corruption” in the insurance industry is in its early stages. “It is incomprehensible that while the Attorney General of New York State is conducting a wide ranging investigation of the practices of the insurance industry, the Ontario government has done nothing except ask the industry to voluntarily disclose secret commissions to consumers,” said Cran.

In the last week whistle, the CAC says blowers have approached the it with inside stories on the practices of insurance companies and brokers designed to subvert fair play and competition in the marketplace. “Consumers are the big losers in these kick back schemes,” said Cran.

A number of U.S. states including California, Minnesota, New York and North Carolina are now conducting formal investigations of insurance companies and brokers.