Markel International has appointed Alisha Everett (pictured) as assistant vice president, contractors, trades and construction services, and Nicholas Doy as manager within the same team, both effective immediately and based in the company's Toronto office.
Everett will lead Markel's CTCS strategy across Canada, overseeing underwriting execution and driving growth within the contractors and trades segment. She will work closely with national underwriting and distribution teams on market engagement, risk appetite and broker proposition development. Markel said she brings deep expertise in construction and casualty underwriting with a track record of building sustainable portfolios.
Meanwhile, Doy joins in a supporting role focused on underwriting performance, portfolio development and broker engagement across key Canadian regions.
Andrew Poulton, vice president, sectors at Markel Canada, said: "Their combined experience and market insights will be instrumental in strengthening our underwriting capabilities and accelerating profitable growth in the Contractors and Trades sector."
The appointments come as Canada's construction sector enters a period of expanding activity and rising underwriting complexity. The Canadian construction industry is expected to grow 2.2% in real terms in 2025 and a further 2.6% in 2026, supported by public and private investment in residential, non-residential and transport infrastructure, according to GlobalData. Meanwhile, total investment in building construction grew 4.5% year on year in the first nine months of 2025, with residential construction up 6.8% and institutional construction up 6% over the same period, according to Statistics Canada.
Federal policy is amplifying that pipeline considerably. Prime Minister Mark Carney's budget committed $25 billion for housing, $30 billion for defense and security, $110 billion to drive productivity and competitiveness and $115 billion for major infrastructure, with the government's Major Projects Office already bringing nearly $120 billion in developments under review, according to ConstructConnect. Construction starts are projected to rise 15% to $37.5 billion in 2026, with civil construction's share of total activity forecast to expand from 37% in 2025 to 46.9% by 2027.
That volume of activity translates directly into exposure growth, but also into a more demanding underwriting environment. While the construction market remains competitive in Canada, policyholders are seeing increased underwriting scrutiny and rate adjustments across several lines, according to WTW's Global Construction Rate Trend Report. Current trends shaping the Canadian construction insurance sector include natural catastrophes, tariff uncertainty, skilled labor shortages, rising materials costs and the national housing crisis, according to Canadian Underwriter.
US tariff pressures are adding a further layer of complexity, with materials cost inflation and supply chain disruption affecting project economics and the risk profiles underwriters are being asked to assess. Labor market tightening is also a defining feature of the 2026 outlook, with Ontario alone expected to require roughly 154,100 new construction workers by 2034 to meet planned infrastructure and housing needs, according to BuildForce Canada. Workforce pressures of that scale tend to increase the incidence of worksite incidents and claims, a dynamic that specialist underwriters in the contractors and trades space will need to price carefully.
The appointments reflect a broader pattern of insurers investing in dedicated construction underwriting capacity at a moment when the sector's risk profile is evolving faster than general commercial lines can comfortably accommodate.
