Fasten your seatbelts for this revelation. If a punk steals your car, smashes it up and gets injured in the process, he or she will get compensation from Saskatchewan Government Insurance.

Yes, you read that right.

Under Saskatchewan’s no fault insurance, law abiding citizens not only have to pay for criminals’ health care bills after an accident, they also have to pay for their rehabilitation benefits, income replacement and permanent impairment benefits depending on their injuries.

Clearly, it’s time to change this unacceptable practice.

Saskatchewan Government Insurance informed the Canadian Taxpayers Federation that car thieves are eligible for the same benefits as law abiding citizens. For those keeping score at home, rehabilitation benefits go up to $5 million and income replacement benefits are as high as $60,000.

Further, if the thief suffers a permanent disability, he or she can also qualify for upwards of $170,000 courtesy of taxpayers. Yet, if the thief suffers a catastrophic impairment, such as becoming a paraplegic, he or she could receive benefits upwards of $210,000.

SGI also confirmed they will provide compensation to estates if the criminal happens to succumb to their injuries after the accident. Even more shocking, if the criminal is stuck in a hospital for a few days, SGI will sometimes pay to fly-in their family.

Of course all of those benefits also extend to any thugs who are injured while riding along with the car thief.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation filed an information request with SGI to determine just how much the payouts are costing Saskatchewan taxpayers each year. Unfortunately, the crown corporation doesn’t track the data in such a way that the numbers can be retrieved easily.

What we do know however, is that SGI has indicated their system is quite similar to Manitoba’s.

Thanks to a media exposé, one car thief in Manitoba recently disclosed that he cashed in between $30,000-60,000 in compensation for his joy ride a few years ago. His buddy, who was riding with him at the time, received around $10,000.

Surprisingly, even the thief acknowledged he didn’t deserve the benefits.

Once the story broke in Manitoba, there was a small uproar among law abiding citizens and Manitoba’s NDP government caved in to public pressure. They announced they would reverse their previous support for the practice and would introduce legislation to halt the payouts in the future.

The good news for Saskatchewan taxpayers in all of this is that stopping the benefits for car thieves in Saskatchewan shouldn’t be a problem. You see, the government seems to have some appetite for holding criminals responsible for their cost to society.

In June 2010, the Saskatchewan government began charging inmates in provincial jails for non-essential phone calls they made. The funds collected helped to offset the cost of monitoring inmates’ phone calls.

If Manitoba’s NDP is on board with halting the payouts, surely there’s a good chance Saskatchewan’s NDP could take a similar position. That means there shouldn’t be too much opposition to ending the practice.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has written to Tim McMillan, the Minister responsible for SGI, and called on the government to discontinue the practice.

While we look forward to the government’s response, we encourage you to honk your horns and speak up too.