Many Canadians don’t believe damaging earthquake is imminent

Canadians largely don’t believe a major earthquake here is imminent, and many are misinformed about how potential damages from such an event would be covered, according to a new poll commissioned by the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

Those Canadians living in areas most vulnerable to earthquakes believe that the danger is at least 50 years away, the poll results suggest. The survey included roughly 2,000 residents of British Columbia and the Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City corridor, and was conducted in the spring of 2014 by Pollara Strategic Insights.

“Preparing Canadians for this type of major disaster is a strategic priority for our industry,” said Mary Lou O’Reilly, senior vice president of Issues Management and Communications with IBC commented in a statement on the poll findings.

“But before we can help those living in the most vulnerable regions, we need to know what they are thinking. When do people think an earthquake will happen? Are people prepared – both physically and financially – to deal with an earthquake? Do consumers have earthquake insurance? Why or why not? And what are their expectations around insurance coverage?”

More than two-thirds of respondents to the poll said they don’t have earthquake insurance (or don’t know if they have it), and awareness of earthquake insurance was particularly low in the Quebec region.

Of those, 70% of the respondents in B.C. and 91% in the Quebec zone said they never considered buying earthquake coverage mainly because they don’t think an earthquake will strike their area, according to IBC. Also of note, cost was not the number one deterrent, IBC said.

Seventy-one percent of those polled said they would rely on insurance to cover rebuilding and replacement costs, but most do not have specific earthquake coverage, IBC noted.

Thirty-eight percent also said they expect that government assistance will help pay for damage costs arising from a quake.

“People overestimate their physical and financial preparedness – they are simply not ready,” IBC’s O’Reilly noted. “Equally worrisome is the pervasive belief that the government will step in to cover losses. With the destruction wrought by a major earthquake, its enormous costs and the increasing strain on public resources, the reality is that our governments may not be in the position to pick up the tab.”