The Insurance Bureau of Canada reported last year that claim costs for personal property insurance averaged more than $7 billion annually over the last five years in Canada. That compares with $5.8 billion in the previous five years, and $2 billion a year in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Stewart said for now the biggest effect is rising premiums, but he added some businesses, particularly tourism and hospitality operators in parts of western Canada, that haven’t been able to renew their insurance in recent years. Paul Kovacs, executive director at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction in Toronto, said he doesn’t think it will happen here. He said premiums will go up but he thinks the costs can be managed in Canada.
He said it has been proven that investing $1 in prevention can save governments, insurance companies and individuals between $5 to $10 when disaster strikes, but getting those investments made can still be a hard sell.