I6

Daniel Martins
Miramichi Leader

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As the City of Miramichi moves to retender its current insurance contract of more than $400,000, Bathurst city manager André Doucet is perfectly satisfied with the $195,000 premium his city pays.

Especially since, he said, the city was paying almost $300,000 before joining with other municipalities for a group insurance plan.

"It's a substantial saving," Doucet said of the concept, which is done though Francophone Association of New Brunswick Municipalities.

He said Bathurst and Edmunston are the only two cities to be part of the plan, which includes the association's towns and villages as well.

The association acts more or less as a broker, and hires a consultant to deal with tendering and documents and deciding the insurance company that ultimately provides the coverage.

"Of course, the decision is made by us, based on their recommendation," Doucet said.

He said the current agreement allows the association to choose to go to tender, or stay with the same company, depending on the group's needs at the time.

"Every year, we decide whether to go by tender or not," said Doucet. "This year we opted not to go by tender, so we're going to stay with the same company next year."

Premiums for the cities, villages and towns of the association are tailored to their specific needs and sizes, and the fact all of them banded together gave them extra clout when seeking liability insurance.

"By joining together, well, of course, we're bigger, we can access bigger markets," Doucet said.

"For us, it's a lot easier, and it works fine. We joined that three years ago and, really, it's working well now."