Spring flood risks highlight lack of insurance for Canadian homeowners: experts
BNN Bloomberg
As the spring season brings higher flood risk to Canadians, as seen in British Columbia recently, experts say many homeowners remain without adequate insurance to cover extreme weather's damage to their homes.
“I would say that Canadians in general are not truly aware of the risks that their homes are exposed to, and the exposure they have to extreme weather events and the potential losses they could experience,” said Michelle Laidlaw, associate vice-president of The Co-operators Group Ltd.’s national product portfolio.
Flooding is the biggest under-insured climate risk in Canada, said Victor Adesanya, vice-president of insurance at DBRS Morningstar, especially during the spring thaw. IBC said more than 1.5 million households in Canada are “highly exposed” to flood risk.
In comparison, as wildfires in Alberta have forced evacuations and filled the skies with smoke, the Insurance Bureau of Canada said standard homeowner's insurance covers fire damage as well as the costs of mass evacuations.
