Residents in Calgary’s north and eastern communities that have been hit hard by severe weather in the past are speaking out about their concerns about accessing insurance coverage. In a release sent from Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal’s office, it says, “Many are being denied home insurance coverage or receiving quotes with unaffordable premiums.” Harlin Kaur, a resident of Cornerstone, said she was denied insurance by at least a dozen companies for her parents’ Cornerstone home. “We weren’t even being offered insurance; we were being denied coverage altogether. I said to my insurance company, ‘Increase my premium, don’t deny me coverage,’” Kaur said. She eventually found an insurance provider but is worried about next year. Balraj Nijjar, another northeast Calgary resident, said he’s due to renew his insurance in December, but the last time he renewed, it cost $11,000 for his two cars and homes. “Now I’m scared in the future my insurance company may decline my insurance. Which is a big concern for us,” he said. According to a January report from the Insurance Bureau of Canada, Calgary’s hailstorm in August 2024 cost an estimated $3 billion in insured catastrophic losses for that year. Hail from that storm damaged homes in communities like Redstone, Cityscape, Skyview Ranch and Cornerstone. In a statement, a spokesperson for the office of the minister of municipal affairs said the government is aware of the northeast Calgary residents’ concerns and is working to find ways to help. “This includes new province-wide building code requirements, introduced last year, that strengthen construction standards that protect against environmental conditions such as weather,” Kevin Lee, press secretary for the office of the minister, said in the statement. “Homes in different areas of the province face various potential risks due to factors such as inclement weather, so we provide builders and homeowners with the flexibility to build or upgrade homes above the established code requirements to account for this.”
