The year of the Rooster ushers in special liability coverage

Fireworks and food vendors combine for spectacular extensions

The year of the Rooster ushers in special liability coverage

Insurance News

By Will Koblensky

It’s the year of the Rooster come Saturday and Chinese New Year celebrations are expected to flourish throughout Canadian cities.

Fireworks will be sent shooting into the sky, delicious food will be served and an insurance policy will cover it all.

Learn more about event cancellation insurance here.

PAL Insurance Brokers is one company covering celebrations from gatherings of hundreds to thousands everywhere from city streets, to parks, to banquet halls.

“For Chinese New Year, assuming it’s a larger event they most likely would hire a contractor to set fireworks off, if it’s a smaller gathering like a block party, with just the community, they may have someone from the fire department to set them off,”  Matt Taylor, General Manager at PAL Insurance Brokers said.

“If it’s a third party that was hired by the event organizer to set the actual fireworks off, we would look to see if they had a pyrotechnician license and fill out a questionnaire.”

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Covering events comes with many extension options including ones for forced cancellation, performers not showing up and alcohol.

Event cancellation is something Taylor described as a “hidden gem” that either reimburses costs or lost revenue.

“If the event was cancelled due to a natural disaster or something out of the control of the insured (it would come into effect),” Taylor said.

“We do have terrorism extensions. For example, if the Chinese New Year celebration was booked for a street in downtown Toronto and the authorities had to close down the streets because of a car accident or a bomb threat, the policy could potentially respond in that case.”

A non-appearance policy, on the other hand, “would be great for if they hired a professional performer to come in and the performer ended up falling sick,” Taylor said.

Other than slip and falls, third party liability relating to food vendors and performers ranks as the biggest risk in a special event liability policy like the one for ringing in the Rooster.


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