Since 2009, insurers have paid out an average of over $1 billion per year in claims, in contrast to the $400 million annually averaged through the 1990s. In 2018, insured losses from severe weather events across Canada totalled $1.9 billion, the fourth-highest amount of losses on record. Insured losses, on average, are caused by flooding more than any other single peril. Flooding can be caused by extreme rainfall, by rivers and lakes overflowing their banks due to sudden snowmelt and due to storm surges caused by coastal storms.
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Terence Corcoran’s recent article discusses a complaint made by Rob Muir, a licensed professional engineer, which Muir lodged successfully with the Ombudsman for Radio Canada, Guy Gendron. Muir disputed comments by Blair Feltmate, Head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, who cited Insurance Bureau of Canada’s (IBC’s) contention that increases in the frequency and intensity of severe weather are the source of these rising insurance claims costs. Gendron, in reaching his findings relied on a single published source that studied historical incidences of severe rainfall between 1953 and 2012.