IBC calls for governments to review and update infrastructure

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is calling on Canadian governments to review critical infrastructure to ensure the country is better able to deal with severe weather events in the future.

IBC president and CEO Mark Yakabuski has called on all governments to work together to:

• reinforce/improve infrastructure;

• strengthen building codes and build in climactic design values;

• consider sweeping land use revisions; and

• improve disaster management.

“Since the 1970s, we have witnessed a 20-fold increase in the cost of claims from extreme weather and geological losses,” Yakabuski said as part of the panel at the Climate Adaptation Expert Meeting hosted by the City of Toronto in January 2008. “At the same time, we have greater density in our cities, higher rebuilding costs and more expensive contents.”

Yakabuski said Canada has now reached “a critical juncture” and “must deal with this problem head on.”

He said too many municipalities are struggling with infrastructure that is well on in years and is in desperate need of upgrading.

“The unfortunate reality is that infrastructure failure played a major role in every major natural disaster in Canada in recent memory, including the Ice Storm (January 1998), the Saguenay Flood (1996) and the Greater Toronto Area rainstorm (August 2005),” he said.