A BC tribunal ordered ICBC to pay income replacement benefits to a self-employed contractor injured in a crash, despite his history of prior accidents.
The Civil Resolution Tribunal released its decision on July 10, 2026, resolving a claim for enhanced accident benefits brought after the applicant was rear-ended on a highway on February 15, 2023.
The claimant sought health care and rehabilitation benefits, income replacement benefits, and caregiver benefits. ICBC argued he had not proved any new injuries, pointing to four earlier motor vehicle accidents between 2017 and 2020 that left him with soft-tissue injuries and symptoms that overlapped his current complaints.
Causation was the threshold issue. Under section 118 of the Insurance (Vehicle) Act, BC residents are entitled to enhanced accident benefits for bodily injury caused by a crash, tested on a "but for" standard. ICBC's independent medical examiner, who reviewed the file without examining the claimant, found no "distinct new structural injury" and described the picture as a temporary exacerbation of pre-existing conditions. He tied a C5/C6 disc protrusion on a December 2024 MRI to degenerative or multifactorial causes rather than the crash.
The tribunal accepted the disc protrusion was not caused by the accident alone but found that point was not determinative. Because the claimant had recovered to a functional baseline and was working before the crash, the tribunal found the accident materially contributed to his injuries and that, but for it, he would not have needed further treatment or been kept from working.
That finding drove the largest issue. The claimant was the sole owner, director, operator, and employee of his property maintenance and construction company. Its revenue fell sharply after the accident, and he later moved onto provincial income assistance. The tribunal classified him as a "temporary earner" under the Act, since he had not worked at least 28 hours a week for the full year before the crash, and ordered ICBC to calculate and pay income replacement benefits from February 15, 2023 to December 31, 2023, with 2024 benefits to follow once he files his tax return, plus interest.
ICBC fared better on the rest. The tribunal found the insurer was complying with its treatment-funding obligations, noting it had funded 48 treatments and approved far more physiotherapy and kinesiology sessions than the claimant attended. He had stopped treatment in January 2025 despite approvals that ran to May 2025.
His bid to be reimbursed for medical cannabis and psilocybin also failed. No medical professional had prescribed the psilocybin, and the only cannabis prescription - 14 grams a day - came from a nurse practitioner and far exceeded the roughly 3 grams a day the tribunal cited as the safe upper limit. A specialist had recommended he wean off both.
The tribunal dismissed the caregiver benefits claim, finding caregiving was not the claimant's main occupation, and dismissed ICBC's own claim for tribunal fees because it lost on the largest issue. The decision is a validated order, enforceable through the BC courts.
