Homeowners brace for higher insurance rates across Canada, low-risk areas too

A worker walks in a neighbourhood in west Jasper, Alta., which was destroyed by wildfire in July 2024, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Amber Bracken/The Canadian Press)

The Insurance Bureau of Canada has shed light on the staggering financial impact of recent extreme weather events across the country.

From wildfires to hailstorms and hurricanes, these natural disasters have left a trail of destruction, costing billions in insurance claims and driving up premiums for homeowners nationwide.

Craig Stewart from the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) told CTV’s Your Morning Tuesday that insurance rates are not going down.

“Canada seems to be prone to everything from hurricanes to hail, wildfire flooding across most of the country. And with that, what that means is that no place is really safe and it’s a riskier place to live, work and insure,” Stewart said.

As the weather risk rises in Canada, this drives insurance rates up, not just for those who have experienced a claim but for everybody, he added.

The reason for this, according to Stewart, is that the insurance industry is struggling to accurately model the rapidly changing climate and its impact on weather patterns.

“What we thought to be low risk is now turning out to be high risk,” he said.

Stewart said the southern Quebec flooding event is a perfect example of this. The remnants of Hurricane Debby travelled across southern Quebec dumping 150 to 200 millimetres of rain last July, resulting in an estimated $2.5 billion in insured damage.

“Many of those homes were low- to medium-risk homes, but it just seems that the heavens can open up and dump an enormous amount of water no matter where you are, even if you’re on the side of the hill, not at the bottom of it,” Stewart said.

Most expensive weather events

The summer of 2024 shattered records and was crowned the costliest year for insured severe-weather losses totalling over $7 billion, the IBC said.

Between July and August, four catastrophic weather events occurred including flooding in Toronto and other parts of southern Ontario that cost $940 million, the Jasper wildfire at a cost of $880 million, Calgary’s hailstorm which cost $2.8 billion and flooding in regions of Quebec that amounted to $2.5 billion.

This led to more than a quarter of a million insurance claims – 50 per cent more than Canadian insurers typically receive in an entire year.

According to the IBC, since 2019, Canada has experienced a 115 per cent increase in the number of claims for personal property damage and a 485 per cent increase in the costs for repairing and replacing personal property.

“People, every part of the country, has been affected in recent years by one event or another. We’re seeing the risk rise here,” Stewart said.