The legal minimum is $500,000 of third-party liability in Nova Scotia and $200,000 in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario. Those numbers are licensing requirements rather than recommendations. We write $2,000,000 as our default, because a collision with several injured claimants can exhaust a minimum limit before the first year of treatment is finished, and because your family protection coverage is capped at whatever your liability limit is.

It is the coverage that pays for damage to your own vehicle when someone else caused the collision. Rather than claiming against the other driver’s insurer, you claim against your own, and your insurer pays the portion of the damage that was not your fault. It applies in all four Atlantic provinces and in Ontario, although Ontario drivers have been able to opt out of it since 1 January 2024.

No. Collision and comprehensive are optional in all five provinces. If your vehicle is older and you could absorb replacing it, dropping them can be a reasonable decision. If the vehicle is financed or leased, your loan agreement almost certainly requires them, and dropping them puts you in breach of it.

Uninsured automobile coverage is mandatory in all five provinces and responds when the at-fault driver is uninsured or is never identified. Its limits are modest, which is why we pair it with the family protection endorsement — that endorsement tops up the shortfall when the other driver carries a lower limit than you do.

A collision recorded as not at fault should not carry a rating consequence with your current insurer. Fault is assigned under provincial fault determination rules in fixed increments, and a claim generally becomes chargeable once you are assigned twenty-five per cent or more. If you disagree with the percentage, tell us early — that conversation is far easier before the file closes.

Only if you have the non-owned automobile endorsement. Without it, your own policy will not pay for damage to the rental, and the rental company will pursue you for repairs, loss of use and administrative fees. The endorsement is usually cheaper than the counter waiver and, unlike most credit card benefits, it is primary rather than excess.

Not without telling us. Ride-share driving in Atlantic Canada is handled through a transportation network policy held by the platform combined with a restricted-permission endorsement on your own policy, and Ontario uses insurer-approved platform products. Food and goods delivery is different again — there is no standard endorsement for it, and it belongs on a commercial auto policy or an approved platform product.

On 1 July 2026 only medical, rehabilitation and attendant care benefits remained mandatory in an Ontario policy. Income replacement, caregiver, housekeeping, death and funeral benefits and several others became optional, elected on the OPCF 47R endorsement. Existing policies keep their current coverage at renewal until you agree in writing to change it, and the optional benefits now reach only the named insured, spouse, dependants and listed drivers.

Generally yes, and by a wider margin than most buyers expect. Repair costs run materially higher, certified repair facilities are scarce outside the larger centres, and battery replacement economics push moderate damage into total-loss territory more often. The gap varies a great deal by model, so the sensible order is to get the insurance quote before you sign the purchase agreement.

Because the policy wording is standard and the pricing is not. We place personal car insurance with more than fifty insurer markets, we set the endorsement schedule rather than leaving it at the default, and when a claim goes sideways there is someone whose job is to argue your side of it.