Extreme Canada weather causes record $5.7B insured damage

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(Bloomberg) –An onslaught of four natural disasters caused C$7.1 billion ($5.3 billion) of insured losses across Canada in just two months — more than any other summer on record. 

In July and August, a ballistic hailstorm tore through cars and buildings in Calgary, a wildfire incinerated large parts of the mountain resort town of Jasper, Alberta, while parts of Quebec and southern Ontario, including Toronto, suffered flooding.

All told, insurers in Canada have notched C$7.7 billion of catastrophic weather losses so far this year with a few months still to go, according to initial estimates gathered by Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. and published by the Insurance Bureau of Canada. That’s more than the last two years combined, and more than 10 times the average annual payout from 2001 through 2010. 

The barrage of disasters led to 228,000 insurance claims, a 406% increase over the 20-year average, the IBC added.

The soaring cost and difficulty of insuring against climate risks may force people to relocate, the country’s superintendent of financial institutions told an audience of insurance professionals in Vancouver on Monday.

Read More: Climate Reality Means You May Have to Move, Canada Official Says