Manitoba Public Insurance has announced they're applying to the Public Utilities Board for a rate decrease, after making a similar announcement earlier about an increase of 0.1%.

Spokesperson Brian Smiley explains they made the change after looking at financial statements at the end of September.

"We realized that we had been performing very well in a number of areas," he says. "We were having very good weather seasons, meaning not many hailstorms, we were looking at reductions in costs relating to bodily injury and physical damage. We then adjusted our rate application where we were asking for a 0.6% rate decrease."

Smiley tells us what the decrease will mean if it's approved by the Public Utilities Board.

"On average, passenger vehicle owners should be paying about $10.00 less per year," he says. "We know that's a very modest amount, but it's certainly good news when you look at other jurisdictions seeing double digit increases."

Smiley says the decrease is also in part because their reserve fund reached about 200 million dollars.

"We had told the Public Utilities Board that if we had reached the levels that we needed to, we would not be needing any additional revenues to fund that particular area," he says. "So that's one of the main reasons why we then reversed our application, going from a rate increase, to the rate decrease that Manitobans may see if this is approved by the Public Utilities Board."