Intact Financial has opened applications for the next round of its Climate Resilience Grants. It’s offering municipalities and Indigenous communities up to $225,000 each for local projects that reduce flood and wildfire risk.
Applications are open from October 19 to December 18. Eligible projects can be community-wide or focused on homeowners, but must reduce flood or wildfire risk, improve preparedness and deliver measurable benefits. Applicants also get access to research and tools from the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, and can attend program webinars and flood and wildfire risk clinics.
“Municipalities and Indigenous communities are doing the heavy lifting to protect their communities, but too often, proven ideas stall because the resources to implement them are not there,” said Natalie Higgins, Intact’s senior vice president of climate, social impact and government relations.
Intact launched the program in 2021 to help communities move from adaptation planning to implementation. Since then, it has invested $4.1 million in 29 projects supporting 48 communities.
In Banff, Alberta, grant-funded work has reduced wildfire risk at about 20 critical infrastructure sites. Mayor Corrie DiManno said the work focused on protecting infrastructure from embers that can travel kilometres from a wildfire, as happened in Jasper.
The Lillooet Tribal Council in British Columbia is using its grant for FireSmart programming, education and youth engagement, including Indigenous fire practices guided by Elders and Knowledge Keepers. In Ontario, the Municipality of Southwest Middlesex launched a program helping homeowners in high-risk areas install backwater valves and disconnect sump pumps from the sanitary sewer to reduce basement flooding.
Intact said Canada’s 2026 catastrophe season started early and hit hard, with 13 extreme weather events between May and June bringing floods, heavy rain, wildfires and storms across the country.
It also pointed to the El Niño now developing. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) October update gave an 83% chance that it becomes the strongest El Niño on record, dating back to 1950, during October to December. A strong-to-very strong event is likely to last through January to March 2027. In Canada, strong El Niño winters have historically tended to be milder than normal in the West and on the Prairies, which can reduce snowpack and raise wildfire and drought risk the following spring.
The program fits a wider industry push for prevention. The Insurance Bureau of Canada recently called on governments to shift from recovery to prevention, including funding home retrofits such as backwater valves and sump pumps, the kind of measures funded in Southwest Middlesex.
Intact’s other resilience commitments include $20 million since 2015 to the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation and an $8 million, five-year partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada that has protected more than 13,000 hectares of natural areas since 2023.
“Resilience is built before disaster strikes,” Higgins said.
For brokers with municipal, Indigenous community or public-entity clients, the program is worth flagging before the December 18 deadline. Funded projects such as backwater valve programs and FireSmart work can reduce the frequency and severity of claims over time, which could help communities and their residents with insurability and pricing. Brokers can also point homeowner clients to subsidized mitigation programs where municipalities run them.
