The city says that after provincial health orders aimed at preventing the spread of the virus were issued in March 2020, it was forced to close its civic facilities, including the CN Centre, the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, Elksentre Arena and the Kin Centre arenas.“Prince George suffered a significant loss of revenue from the closure and then limited operations of the civic facilities,” said the lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court.
The city says it paid “significant” premiums to Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Canada , one of Canada’s largest property and casualty insurance companies, to gain protection under its business interruption coverage.It alleges that RSA is contractually bound to the policy’s general civil authority coverage to cover some or all of Prince George’s losses, with the policy also providing coverage for losses resulting from interruption of business caused by damage by an insured peril.
The lawsuit notes that RSA denied the claim for several reasons, including that there had been no physical loss or damage to insured property in order to trigger business interruption coverage. A spokesman for the Union of B.C. Municipalities said he had not heard of any other similar lawsuits filed by municipalities in the province.