The ice storms which ravaged Canada’s eastern provinces of Ontario and Quebec in mid-April will cost re/insurers around CAD $190 million (USD $149 million), according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification (CatIQ), a loss index and estimates provider.
Strong winds, flooding, heavy snow, and ice build-up affected the provinces’ southern regions over April 14-16, causing extensive damage, transport disruption, and power outages.
CatIQ has reported more than 15,000 insurance claims, mostly in the Ontario and Greater Toronto Area, including 1,800 car collisions, while Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting found that over 100,000 people were left without electricity after ice accumulation brought down power lines.
Insured losses from severe weather events seem to be increasing rapidly in Canada, with CatIQ having tracked over CAD $600 million in damages for Ontario alone last year, and with costs from weather events over the last 10 years totalling CAD $17.4 billion.
Kim Donaldson, Vice President of Ontario with the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), commented: “A generation ago, insurers paid out – on average – about $400 million a year in today’s dollars across Canada on weather-related costs. Now that number often tops $1 billion a year, and sometimes it goes much higher.”
The latest April storms also brought wind speeds of up to 96km/h to some areas of Ontario, along with freezing rain mixed with ice pellets, and almost 40cm of snow, leading to a two-day flood watch in Toronto.
Verisk Analytic’s Property Claim Services had previously issued a preliminary estimate of CAD $164 million in insured losses for the storms, while Aon Benfield’s Global Catastrophe Report placed total economic damage at USD $250 million.
