This summer was the most expensive ever in Canada for insurance claims

A report released today (Sept 4) by the Insurance Bureau of Canada has relayed that Canadian home and auto insurance providers have faced their most expensive summer on record. 

The reasoning behind such outlandish numbers — according to the bureau — was the relentless frequency of large-scale environmental disasters throughout Canada, such as flooding throughout southern Ontario, the Jasper wildfire, the Calgary hailstorm and additional flooding in numerous regions in Quebec.

As a result, approximately 228,000 insurance claims were filed in Canada this summer. 

“These four catastrophic weather events, which occurred over the span of four weeks this summer, have resulted in more claims in one summer than insurers have reported in any summer over the last 20 years,” said Celyeste Power, President and CEO of the Insurance Bureau of Canada. 

For comparison — using summer’s numbers as a metric — insurers in Canada only reported 113,000 claims in July and August of last year and 160,000 claims for the entirety of 2023. 

“This summer has been the most challenging in history for the hundreds of thousands of Canadians across the country who were impacted by these storms and wildfires,” continued Power in her statement. 

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As disasters of these magnitudes are only likely to increase, especially in provinces like Ontario, authorities like Power have called on government officials to overhaul strategic policies to combat what is slowly becoming a standard of Canadian living. 

“First, the federal government must commit the necessary resources this fall to stand up the National Flood Insurance Program for high-risk households, while the provinces and territories need to commit to reducing flood risk. This is the single, most important step the government can take to better protect homeowners from the financial risks of climate change.

The report concluded that insured losses to severe weather in Canada are anticipated to exceed $2-billion a year.