Protecting your tomorrow

Severe weather is affecting hundreds of thousands of Canadians

Severe weather losses surpassed $8 billion in 2024, for the first time ever. Canadians contended with flooding in the Greater Toronto Area, a wildfire in Jasper, a hailstorm in Calgary, the remnants of Hurricane Debby in Quebec and a handful of smaller events. Beyond the financial losses, hundreds of thousands of lives were disrupted. Canada’s home, auto and business insurers are there for Canadians, helping customers repair and rebuild after severe weather hits.

Since 2019, Canada has experienced a 115% increase in the number of claims for personal property damage and a 485% increase in the cost of repairing and replacing personal property. This increased risk is now impacting insurance affordability and availability.

But, there are actions insurers are taking, actions governments can take, and actions homeowners can take to mitigate these losses and better protect communities across the country.

What insurers are doing to help Canadians adapt to the impacts of severe weather

Canada’s insurers are now close to paying out more in claims for a single severe weather event than the federal government has allocated to adapting to severe weather over the past decade. Instead of the government making a small investment in resilience and disaster preparedness, Canadian families and communities are facing higher costs. 

The property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry is playing a leading role in helping communities adapt to severe weather and has been calling on all orders of government to take immediate action to mitigate the impacts of natural catastrophes and better protect communities. Canada’s insurers have stepped up to increase residents’ financial protection by: 

• Creating a new category of insurance – overland flood coverage – to financially protect Canadians who live in areas of increasing flood risk 

• Working in partnership with all orders of government – sharing data, offering expertise, and advocating for policy changes and financial investments that will help protect Canadians from the immediate and emerging effects of severe weather 

• Through Climate Proof Canada, advocating for the National Adaptation Strategy, including helping to develop the disaster resilience goals, objectives and targets to address the impact of severe weather events on communities and households

• Helping consumers to rebuild to Build Back Better standards following a severe weather event in some policies

• Advocating for the creation of a national flood insurance program that, once implemented, will ensure that overland flood insurance is available for all who need it, including those whose homes are at severe risk of flood damage 

• Investing in disaster prevention research to help consumers, governments and stakeholders understand how to better protect their homes, businesses and communities. Here are a few examples through the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR):

  • WindEEE Research Facility at the University of Western Ontario

  • Basement flood protection lab with the University of Guelph

  • High Wind Resilience Pilot Project.

What governments can do to build a more resilient Canada

Canadians need their governments at all levels to collaborate and protect residents from ever-escalating natural catastrophes. All orders of government can make meaningful investments in adapting to severe weather by: 

• Improving hazard mapping and making hazard maps accessible to the public. Regularly updated to identify new areas of risk for housing growth

• Adopting land-use planning rules that ensure homes and businesses are not built in high-risk wildfire and flood zones. Canada has plans to build 5.3 million homes by 2030 and according to a report by the Canadian Climate Institute, without policy changes, more than 540,000 of those homes could be built in flood-prone areas and more than 220,000 in communities at risk of wildfire.

• Mandating the use of resilient building materials where governments choose to allow development in areas at risk of wildfire or hail

• Adopting the highest tiers of the National Model Building Codes to ensure new developments are built to be resilient from the outset

• Allowing municipalities to exceed building code provisions for resilience and energy efficiency as long as they can show rapid permitting and cost savings to the building occupant

• Investing in new infrastructure to defend communities against floods, wildfires and extreme heat, including nature-based solutions 

• Investing in the training of communities on the FireSmart wildfire prevention guidelines in communities in high-risk wildfire zones and developing community action plans

• Offering incentives to relocate homes and businesses away from high-risk areas

• Investing in improving emergency response and training

• Helping Canadian homeowners understand the risks they face and financing retrofits to help them reduce those risks. This could include rebate programs, similar to the one implemented in Wood Buffalo, Alberta following the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfires. Homeowners who complete the assessment are eligible for thousands of dollars in rebates for fire-resistant upgrades to their homes. Retrofits include roof replacements or upgrades, or upgrades to decks, windows, fences or siding that replace highly flammable building materials such as wood or vinyl with more fire-resistant materials.