Atlantic insurance marketplace improves, task force finds

Insurers have improved their communications with the public and forged better relationships with consumers and governments, according to the Progress Report on Commercial Insurance in Atlantic Canada.
In general, the insurance marketplace has improved over the past 16 months, the report notes. Respondents to a survey conducted to gather information for the Progress Report have indicated that insurance availability and affordability is no longer the top-of-mind issue it once was.
In particular, the progress report notes workshops the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) has conducted to provide more education tools to commercial insurance consumers on risk management.
Also, governments in Atlantic provinces have been acting on the insurers information and commercial insurance buyers are beginning to take ownership over the process, the progress report found.
The Progress Report is a follow-up to the Task Force Final Report issued November 2005. The Task Force Final Report made 27 recommendations.
Much has been accomplished since the release of the Task Force Final Report, Don Ferguson, vice-president, Atlantic, Insurance Bureau of Canada, and chair of the Task Force noted in a press release. There is also much more to be done to ensure that businesses, not for profit groups and insurers are prepared for future challenges concerning the availability and affordability of commercial insurance.
For example, snowmobiling is New Brunswick’s winter tourism activity, Ross Antworth, general manager of the New Brunswick Federation of Snowmobile Clubs Inc., said in a press release. But it is often misunderstood that this resource (snowmobile trails) is provided primarily by volunteers, not government, he added.
The volunteers of the New Brunswick Federation of Snowmobile Clubs required assistance with the critical issue of trail insurance availability and affordability, Antworth said. At the height of the recent crisis, the only resource to assist volunteers to find solutions was the Atlantic Task Force.