OTTAWA – The federal government is looking at creating some kind of national disaster response agency in the face of an unusually intense and destructive start to the wildfire season across the country. At the moment, federal departments including Emergency…
If you disagree with a co-worker on exactly what a catastrophe is, both of you could be right. There is no single standard definition of a “Cat,” with the industry’s loss costs — and even media coverage — among the…
Due to six decision biases, consumers will typically not protect themselves against low-probability, high-consequence events until it is too late, a keynote speaker said recently at the CatIQ Connect conference in Toronto. When consumers decide not to purchase insurance or…
A systemic disconnect between material natural disaster risk, asset valuation and infrastructure investment demands that disaster risk and resilience be integrated into broader financial, accounting and reporting systems, David Greenall, senior director of sustainable business solutions for PwC Canada, told…
What has been described as the first free and neutral open online catastrophe modelling course was launched today to help those working in climate change and disaster loss mitigation, academia and insurance better understand the use of models in nat-Cat…
Harvey-related winds and storm surge in Texas are expected to produce industry insured losses amounting to between US$1.2 billion and US$2.3 billion, AIR Worldwide reported Monday afternoon as flooding in southeastern Texas continued to strand residents and wreak havoc. Included…
Allianz Risk Transfer AG (ART) and Nephila Capital Limited report successfully piloting the use of blockchain smart contract technology for transacting a natural catastrophe swap, an approach they suggest offers benefits for this and other types of insurance transactions. The…
The potential for procrastination to address the consequences of a large earthquake in Canada are persistent and pervasive, demanding implementation of a tactical plan that could see “the issue dealt with, one way or another, in the next 12 months,”…
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) cited the Canadian government’s budget commitment to create a Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund in a recommendation to its own federal government to treat the construction of mitigation infrastructure to protect flood-prone towns as…
Both economic and insured losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2016 were the highest since 2012 – reversing a four-year downtrend – amounting to US$54 billion and US$175 billion, respectively, notes the latest sigma study from the Swiss…
Officials for cities, investors and insurers will increasingly need to “build resilience within and between infrastructure systems as a complementary approach to address infrastructure risk and uncertainty,” argues a new report from Lloyd’s and Arup. “While risk management remains a…
The federal budget’s commitment to create a $2 billion Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund demonstrates Ottawa’s increasing support for disaster risk reduction, suggests Glenn McGillivray, managing director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR). “For many years, the federal…