At $4.9 billion, 2016 broke record for damage caused by natural disasters, insurers report
Record set for insurable damage caused by natural disasters such as wildfires, floods and ice storms, Insurance Bureau of Canada says.

TheStar.com
Jan. 9, 2017
Peter Goffin

Canada’s insurance industry is calling on all levels of government to improve climate-change preparedness, after a record-breaking year of damage caused by natural disasters.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada says $4.9 billion in insurable damage was caused by natural disasters such as wildfires, floods and ice storms across the country in 2016.

It’s the most ever in a single year.

Damage costs have increased steadily since the 1980s, says the IBC.

They are expected to keep growing.

“The record damage reported in 2016 is part of an upward trend that shows no signs of stopping,” said IBC Don Forgeron in a written statement.

“That is why Canada’s . . . insurance industry is calling on governments across the country to come together and implement expansive climate policies that will better prepare Canadians and their communities for when disasters strike.”

The goal is to prevent the damage before it occurs, not merely to respond to it, said Pete Karageorgos, IBC director of consumer and industry relations.

“It really is a whole paradigm shift that has to occur from the provincial, municipal and federal levels, so that we can all work together to mitigate or prevent (disaster damage) from occurring,” he said.

The wildfires that devastated Fort McMurray, Alta. in May 2016, did about $3.7 billion in insurable damage, the IBC said.

The year also saw severe rain and flooding in Atlantic Canada and Windsor, Ont., and its surrounding areas.

Dave Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada, said extreme weather events, such as rainstorms, are becoming more frequent and more intense and are lasting longer. Weather records are being smashed as they never have before.

“That storm of the century is now the storm of the decade,” he said.

There is “growing evidence” to suggest that the major storms and floods Canada has suffered are linked to climate change, Phillips said.

But, he added, there is not yet enough data to say definitively that man-made climate change is the cause of Canada’s extreme weather.

“The kind of clear, strong, 99-per-cent evidence is just not there yet,” he said.

When it comes to rising costs of damage inflicted by extreme weather, human behaviour is an important factor.

“We’ve changed the way we live now,” he said. “Therefore, when you look strictly at (insurance) numbers, they can be kind of misleading.”

Phillips gave the example of the Windsor home where he grew up. It had a dingy, little-used basement where he stored his bike.

“Now I’m sure those places are fitness rooms or entertainment centres,” he said.

Accordingly, flood damage would wipe out valuable electronics or furniture now, instead of rusty old bikes or garden tools.

Urbanization can skew the amount of damage done by a single storm, Phillips said.

Around 70 per cent of Canadians now live in metropolitan areas with populations of 100,000 or more.

When storms or floods or fires strike those areas, huge numbers of people are affected, and huge amounts of damage done.

“And, then, what we’ve done in those cities where most of us live is we’ve gone from green infrastructure to grey infrastructure,” Phillips added.

Grass and earth can absorb rainfall; concrete allows it to run off into streets, sewers or basements and contribute to flooding.

Thinking critically about where and how people live is part of the change that the insurance industry wants to see, said Karageorgos.

“It’s . . . a question of, ‘Can we build it smarter beforehand?’ ” said Karageorgos.

That could mean ensuring that infrastructure such as storm sewers can keep up growing populations and changes in climate.

It could also mean reconsidering where housing developments are built, or the layout of individual homes, Karageorgos added.

In 2014, the federal government pledged $200 million over five years to create a National Disaster Mitigation Program.

Most of the money is bound for provinces and territories proposing disaster risk assessments, mitigation planning, flood mapping, and small-scale structural work.

The federal government’s 2016 budget contributed $75 million in new funding for local governments to tackle climate change.

Through the New Building Canada Fund, the federal government will cover up to half the cost of provincial infrastructure projects, including disaster mitigation.

Asked what he thought of the National Disaster Mitigation Program, Karageorgos said it was “too early to pass judgment,” but welcomed the federal government’s action.

“The good thing is the government has recognized that something has to be done,” he said.