Floods like the one in Baie-Saint-Paul, about 90 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, helped drive up insurance claims from extreme weather in 2023 to the fourth-highest total on record, according to a new report by the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
In total, insured losses from extreme weather events exceeded $3 billion in Canada for the second straight year.
The report underscores concerns about the growing economic cost of weather-related disasters made more frequent and severe by climate change — and the rising cost of insurance coverage for homeowners.
In some cases, homeowners are struggling to get coverage at all.
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“It’s important to note these losses are coming from not any one single type of event,” said Craig Stewart, the group’s vice-president of climate change and federal issues.
Stewart’s group has been pressing the federal government to put in place a national flood insurance program that would provide coverage in high-risk areas.
Joanna Kanga, a spokesperson for the minister of Emergency Preparedness, said the federal government “continues to engage provinces and territories, industry stakeholders and Indigenous representatives on the development and implementation of the low-cost flood insurance program.”
A federal government plan is necessary to ensure property owners have coverage, but Canadians need to take precautions themselves, said Anabela Bonada, a research associate at the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation.
Insured losses reflect just a small part of the damage caused by extreme weather and highlight the need for governments to put more money into adaptation measures, said Ryan Ness, a research director with the Canadian Climate Institute.
A report by the institute estimated that every dollar invested in climate adaptation, such as designing roads to make them more resilient to flooding, will return $13 to $15 in avoided costs.
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