What’s New: In Brief (December 21, 2007)

Pilot Insurance Company has signed on to a Cdn$120,000, three-year financial commitment to OSAID (Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving), an association organized and run by high school students to increase awareness about the perils of impaired driving.
As well, Pilot will provide a Cdn$2,000 scholarship for a student who has shown exemplary work within their community.
OSAID reaches more than 300,000 students annually through its 400 school chapters and more than 5,000 volunteers. Its awareness campaigns are based on statistics showing that, every two weeks, one teenager is killed and 20 are injured in drinking and driving-related collisions.
“We are very excited about the Pilot Insurance core sponsorship,” says Matt Evans, OSAID’s provincial coordinator. “Support of this kind lends tremendous credibility to the work done by the many OSAID volunteers across Ontario.”
OSAID says Pilot’s partnership will help in the recruitment of new members.
“In addition to the financial sponsorship, Pilot Insurance will be an integral part of our organization at the board level and will help to develop a network of professional support for OSAID’s regional groups through Pilot’s partnership with more than 300 local independent insurance brokers and 23 claims branches across Ontario,” OSAID announced.

Canada’s tight labour market, which typically lags behind economic activity, is showing the first signs of cooling, according to an analysis of the Canadian economy by Swiss Re.
The news comes as the industry particularly the insurance industry in Alberta copes with a booming labour and construction market that has had the effect of slowing up the resolution of claims.
Swiss Re noted Canada’s overall economic growth is slowing, and inflationary pressures remain at bay. As for the housing sector, which “enjoyed a remarkable spurt in the third quarter,” Swiss Re notes the country’s housing market appears to have peaked.
“Robust building activity in Q3 had arrested the cooling in the housing market that was observed in the first half of the year,” Swiss Re notes. “The market remains strong, but appears to be cooling again. Overall starts for 2007 will only be modestly higher than in 2006.”