Weather Related Insurance Costs Rising

Nine of the most expensive years for weather related insurance costs have happened since 2011. Record losses have occurred in 5 of the last 6 years. Nine of the ten records have been set in the last 13 years.

 

The losses by year (in 2022 $’s) and the major events which happened are:

Year	Cost ($B)	Event(s)
1998	2.83	Quebec ice storm
2011	1.97	Slave Lake, Alberta fire and windstorm
2012	1.65	Calgary rainstorm
2013	3.87	Alberta floods; Greater Toronto Area (GTA) floods; December GTA ice storm
2016	5.96	Fort McMurray, Alberta, fire
2018	2.40	Multiple events: Ontario and Quebec rainstorms and windstorms
2020	2.46	Fort McMurray flood; Calgary hailstorm
2021	2.48	Calgary hailstorm; British Columbia floods
2022	3.40	Multiple events
2023	3.13	Okanagan and Shuswap, BC, area wildfires; Nova Scotia flooding

The science required to attribute a specific weather event to climate change is still evolving. It’s the weather and that changes from year to year. But when 9 of 10 records have been set in the last 13 years it’s reasonable to conclude the data represents a trend and that trend is related to climate change.

These insurance costs translate into higher premiums. Home insurance costs have, for example, increased by 140% from 2011 to 2021 in Alberta and 64% in Ontario (ratesdotca press release). Here in B.C two wildfires in the southern interior resulted in a record $720 million insured loss (CBC). Similar trends are happening elsewhere. Australia, for example, reports “the economic cost of natural disasters has exceeded the 30-year average for seven of the past 10 years.” (ratesdotca press release).

Dramatic increases in home ownership costs are just one of the direct costs of climate change.

Source: Insurance Bureau of Canada