Sudbury gets first ‘safer living home’

The Designed…for safer living program recently celebrated a milestone as Ontario’s first safer living home, designed to withstand winds of 200 km/hour, was completed in Sudbury.The program is a partnership between the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) and the Canadian insurance industry. The Co-operators funded the construction of the home to “better than building code” standards, which involved special building material and methods from the foundation to the roof.”The cost of damage from natural disasters has doubled every five to seven years since the 1960s, and more and more people are living in vulnerable areas. This is an alarming trend that is not sustainable and must be confronted,” said Kathy Bardswick, president and CEO of The Co-operators and member of the ICLR board of directors. “As an insurer, we see first-hand the devastation wrought by natural disasters. It is incumbent upon us to do all we can to promote safer living, and we hope this will encourage all stakeholders to embrace safer standards.”The house, which was insured by The Co-operators, had to be rebuilt from the ground up after a fire destroyed the home. The new house was designed to withstand the most hazardous weather conditions in the area – wind storms and extreme winter weather. “Canadians have a tradition of building strong homes, yet we have the knowledge to build homes that are even more resilient to extreme weather events that are increasing in frequency and severity,” said ICLR executive director, Paul Kovacs. “We need to harness that knowledge to build safer homes for future generations of Canadians. This home will stand as a model as we work to build more resilient homes and communities right across the country.”In the months and years to come, additional safer living homes will be rebuilt in various regions of Canada. The homes will be designed to be resilient to the weather perils in that area, which may include earthquakes, prairie wildfire, tornadoes and hail storms.