The new Superintendent of Motor Vehicles is now writing letters telling people how much money they can get back for being wrongly referred to the IIP (Interlock) and RDP. So far this applies to the people in the 1137. Did you win the IRP lottery? If you already received one of these letters, you might feel that way right now.
Feel free to send us a quick thank-you card. It was our efforts and the courage of our clients (the real heroes) that got us to where we are. Right now 1137 people are back on the road without an interlock and with a letter soon in their mailbox telling them what the Government is offering.
The letters that the OSMV are sending out to our clients tells them how much money they are offering in compensation if they were wrongly referred to the so-called remedial programs due to having received a 90-day IRP. As we said, on first blush you might think “did I win the IRP lottery?” As you read the letter a second time you may think that this is some sort of online scam wherein you will need to send a bunch of money to a foreign prince in distress before the Government writes you a cheque. Or perhaps it’s a trap.
We can confirm that it is a trap. We can also confirm that it is not a scam.
The sad thing is that the Government hasn’t done the morally right thing and simply written cheques to people for their immediate loss for the money paid for the IIP and RDP. There may be other damages, but the money people paid for these programs is owed to them undeniably. The Government accepts responsibility for this. The problem is that the Government doesn’t want to give money to the people who they harmed. They’ll want to hold it as a form of ransom unless these victims sign a document that prohibits them from seeking further damages.
You will see that the letter includes a calculation of the money spent on the IIP and RDP. In this person’s case, the true cost of the RDP is disclosed as $985.60. With the costs of the interlock included, this person is being offered a cheque of $1908.68 if he does two things. First, he must sign an attached document called a “Refund Confirmation.” The document is really a release that claims that the calculation is “full compensation” for the bad decision of the former Superintendent.
If you sign that, send it in (and undermine any chance of being compensated for your lost job, lost house, lost opportunity to work, lost opportunity to invest in Netflix) then they will send you yet another release that they refer to as a “form of release which will enable us to process your claim.” This feels a lot like the Nigerian prince scam.
So, not only do they not send you a cheque, they first send you a document to sign relinquishing any further claims, and then they’ll send you another document that you’ve committed to signing by having signed the first one. And they haven’t even shown you the second document. And this second document is then further proof that you relinquish all claims before they can “process your claim.”
Do you see why we call this a trap?
Don’t count on winning the lottery
To us this is all very creepy. The Justice Minister said that they would pay people back. If that’s the case, why not just pay people back? Why make them sign an agreement that they won’t sue for more?
To us this is totally disingenuous, sneaky and disturbing. It reveals the true character of a Government that doesn’t want to take responsibility for its mistakes. It’s an attempt to bully people into accepting a sum that limits the loss for the Government. The Government is not acting in the interests of the people.
And so the people of British Columbia can take this as an example. The Government doesn’t want to take responsibility for its mistakes, so why should you? Go ahead. Be immoral. If it’s okay for the Government, why should you behave differently?
The point is that it’s not okay for the Government to behave this way. The BC Government sets a bad example.
Be sure to tell your children not to follow the example of the BC Government. And before you sign any document of this sort, be sure to speak to a lawyer and obtain legal advice.