Ontario Auto Insurance Reform: What It Means If You're a New Driver

If you are buying your first auto policy in Ontario on or after July 1, 2026, it starts at the mandatory minimum — medical, rehabilitation and attendant care — and every other accident benefit is there only if it is actively added. That is the opposite of the default for a renewing driver, whose existing benefits carry forward untouched, and the gap between those two starting points is the whole reason new drivers need to read the reform differently.

TopRates.ca is educational. Quotes are not offered or arranged on this site today. Nothing here is advice for your situation — it's the plain-English background to bring to a licensed insurance professional.

Under Ontario Regulation 383/24, which amended the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, only three benefits remain mandatory in every Ontario policy from July 1, 2026: medical, rehabilitation and attendant care. Everything else became optional.

How that plays out depends entirely on which kind of policy you are holding. A policy that renews on or after July 1, 2026 keeps its existing benefits, carried forward as optional coverage in the same amounts — they only go if someone declines or reduces them in writing. A policy written from scratch starts at the mandatory minimum, and the optional benefits exist only if they are actively added.

A first policy is the second kind. So is the first Ontario policy taken out by someone who has moved here from another country or province. Nobody is removing anything from you — there is simply nothing there yet, and the difference is invisible unless you know to look for it.

The three mandatory benefits are in every policy and cover everyone injured in an accident — drivers, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists. Medical covers treatment that OHIP does not, such as physiotherapy, counselling and assistive devices. Rehabilitation covers services aimed at getting you back to normal life. Attendant care covers help with daily living if you need it.

Their limits were not changed by the reform: $3,500 for most minor injuries under the Minor Injury Guideline, $65,000 for injuries that are serious but not catastrophic, and $1,000,000 where an injury is designated a catastrophic impairment.

Income replacement, the non-earner benefit, caregiver benefits, housekeeping and home maintenance, and death and funeral benefits are all optional on a new policy. Where elected, the schedule's amounts are: income replacement at 70% of gross income up to $400 per week, with optional tiers of $600, $800 and $1,000; the non-earner benefit at $185 per week after a four-week waiting period, for up to 104 weeks; caregiver at $250 per week for the first person needing care plus $50 for each additional person; housekeeping and home maintenance up to $100 per week; and death and funeral benefits of $25,000 to a surviving spouse, $10,000 per dependant, and up to $6,000 for a funeral.

That is a long list to be handed at the moment you are also working out what a deductible is. The next two sections are the parts that matter most at your stage.

This is the single most consequential thing in the reform for a young driver, and it is easy to get wrong because it sounds like it should not matter.

Optional benefits now reach four groups only: the named insured, their spouse, their dependants, and the drivers listed on the policy. Mandatory medical, rehabilitation and attendant care still cover everyone. The optional ones do not.

So if you are driving a parent's vehicle on a G2, the question is not whether you are family — it is whether your name appears on that policy. Being someone's child is not, by itself, what puts you inside the optional coverage. Ask to see the declarations page and look for your name. It takes a minute, and it is not a conversation that improves after a collision.

Income replacement gets all the attention, but it replaces 70% of gross income — so if you are studying full-time, or working part-time hours around classes, it has very little to replace and pays accordingly.

The non-earner benefit is the one designed for your situation. It exists precisely for people without a paycheque to replace, and pays $185 per week where an injury causes a complete inability to carry on a normal life, after a four-week wait and for up to 104 weeks. Read that threshold honestly — it is a high bar, not a payout for being hurt — but if you are electing benefits on a student's budget, this is the one that maps to your circumstances rather than to a salaried adult's.

One related benefit is worth knowing by name: lost educational expenses, which addresses a term you have paid for and cannot complete. It sits in the same optional group.

For accidents on or after July 1, 2026, the auto insurer pays first for medical and rehabilitation costs, ahead of any workplace, student or family health plan. Medication is the exception — that still goes to the health plan first.

If you are on a school health plan or still covered under a parent's, this changes which one gets billed rather than whether you are covered. Worth mentioning at a clinic rather than assuming they will work it out.

Is this a new policy — meaning it starts at the mandatory minimum — or am I being added to an existing one?

Which optional benefits are on this quote, and what does each cost separately?

If I am driving a family vehicle, am I listed on that policy — can you show me?

Given that I am a student, does the non-earner benefit make more sense than income replacement here?

What would it cost to add the benefits I am declining today, if I add them at the next renewal instead?

For what a first policy costs and why, see our car insurance for new drivers page.