A young, mobile population with strong safety training contributed to a successful evacuation during Canada’s costliest disaster three years ago in Fort McMurray, Alta., an author said recently at Insurance Bureau of Canada’s (IBC) inaugural Commercial Insurance Symposium. “Most work…
The Fort McMurray Airport Authority (FMAA) is suing FM Global for more than $34 million, contending that the insurer breached its obligations under a policy in place during the Fort McMurray wildfire in May 2016. In a statement of claim…
The property and casualty insurance industry needs to get a better understanding of wildfire risk in Canada because we will experience more disasters like Fort McMurray in the future, a reinsurance company executive warned Monday. “We think [the industry] needs…
Canadian insured losses from catastrophic events in 2017 totaled $1.33 billion, CatIQ Inc. reports, the fifth time that’s happened over the past seven years. “It’s becoming increasingly common to have Canadian annual insured losses to be greater than $1 billion,”…
Catastrophe bond issuance in 2017 reached record levels, including in Canada, as insurers and reinsurers sponsored approximately US$10.5 billion in cat bonds. According to data from the Artemis.bm Deal Directory, there was more than US$10.5 billion in issuance last year,…
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. – Firefighter Mark Stephenson says he can’t drive through Fort McMurray without being brought back to May 2016. That’s when, in the thick of battling a ferocious wildfire that destroyed 10 per cent of the northern Alberta…
Canadian property owners can do more to “take the weak links” out of the chain of events causing homes to burn from wildfire, a speaker suggested at the recent Annual Engineering Insurance Conference (AEIC). “How a property is landscaped is…
As the Bank of Canada announced Wednesday its second rate hike in less than two months, an analyst with A.M. Best Company Inc. suggested to industry professionals that a 2.1-point increase in the industry-wide operating ratio in the Canadian property…
WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. – A municipal leader in British Columbia’s central Interior says he wouldn’t be surprised if wildfires that have chewed through more than 10,600 square kilometres of woodland won’t be fully out until 2018. Chairman Al Richmond of…
The Government of Canada announced on Tuesday that it is creating an expert panel on adapting to climate change. Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, announced the launch of the Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Results in a statement from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The expert panel will advise the federal government on measuring progress on adaptation and climate resilience to better understand how federal, provincial and territorial adaptation efforts are building Canada’s resilience to climate change, for…
With property catastrophe prices dropping during the 2017 renewals, combined with natural catastrophe losses exceeding US$50 billion last year, global reinsurers are at greater risk of having negative underwriting results and will tend to “shy away” from property catastrophe business,…
Last year topped 2015 as the warmest year in 137 years of record keeping and marked the third consecutive year of record warmth, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported on Thursday. The 27th annual State of the Climate…