JASPER, Alta. – One of Canada’s most scenic highways has reopened as the wildfire in Jasper National Park continues to be held. Jane Park, incident commander with Parks Canada, says Highway 93, also known as the Icefields Parkway, is now open to through traffic. But she warns travellers must head straight through the mountain- and […]
By Jason Contant | August 23, 2024
1 min read
Hurricane’s Ernesto’s brush past Newfoundland Monday is only a prelude to a deluge of named storms to come. Insurers can expect a cavalcade of hurricane threats in September — meteorologists are forecasting six to 10 named storms within the next month, Accuweather warns. That would tie with or exceed the historical average of six […]
By Alyssa DiSabatino | August 23, 2024
2 min read
Given the huge insurance losses caused by natural catastrophes in Ontario and Quebec over the past month, insurers are calling on governments to focus on improving Canadian water infrastructure to handle the intensifying rainstorms. But funding the upgrades will be a daunting task. More than $40-billion worth of Canada’s wastewater and stormwater assets are in […]
By David Gambrill | August 23, 2024
3 min read
OTTAWA – A new poll suggests more Canadians are feeling the direct impacts of extreme weather, but that has not changed overall opinions about climate change. The results from a recent Leger poll suggest more than one in three Canadians have been touched directly by extreme weather such as forest fires, heat waves, floods or […]
By Jason Contant | August 22, 2024
3 min read
Insurers received approximately 70,000 claims after Tropical Storm Debby flooded southern Quebec in August, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (Quebec) reports. That’s more than ten to seventeen times the usual volume, “and claims continue to come in,” says Line Crevier, supervisor of technical affairs at the Insurance Information Centre. “People should expect longer than usual […]
By Alyssa DiSabatino | August 21, 2024
4 min read
Three commercial insurance providers in Alberta won their appeal in a $9.7-million pollution claim regarding when a gas pipeline leak was “detected.” In Paramount Resources Ltd v Chubb Insurance Company of Canada, the Alberta Court of Appeal found a lower court had erred when it read regulatory definitions of “detection” into the insurers’ policy wording. […]
By David Gambrill | August 21, 2024
4 min read
The largest study of Canada’s catastrophic 2023 wildfire season concludes it is “inescapable” that the record burn was caused by extreme heat and parching drought, while adding the amount of young forests consumed could make recovery harder. And it warns that the extreme temperatures seen that year were already equivalent to some climate projections for […]
By Jason Contant | August 21, 2024
3 min read
Flood risk intelligence firm Fathom, a part of Swiss Re, and catastrophe model developer Aon Impact Forecasting have been awarded a contract by Public Safety Canada to enhance the federal government’s understanding of flood hazard across the country. As part of the contract, Fathom will provide the Government of Canada with a flood hazard dataset […]
By Jason Contant | August 21, 2024
4 min read
City water mains are failing just as Canadians are facing multiple flooding catastrophes, prompting insurers to call for a revamp of basic infrastructure to withstand modern-day storms. For Canadian property and casualty insurers, bolstering ailing water infrastructure is part of a triad of top priorities for all Canadian governments. “Governments have to make the hard […]
By David Gambrill | August 20, 2024
3 min read
July flash flooding in Toronto and southern Ontario caused more than $940 million in insured damage, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) reports, citing initial estimates from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ). “The insurance industry has long warned that severe weather events are becoming more frequent and intense. This summer is, unfortunately, proving that […]
By David Gambrill | August 19, 2024
3 min read