The British Columbia Earthquake Alliance and Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) are backing a series of preparedness events in Tofino and Ucluelet that emergency managers hope will sharpen public response to earthquakes and tsunamis – and that also underscore how financially exposed many households and businesses remain.
The free Earthquake Preparedness Tours and High Ground Hikes will walk residents through local hazards, evacuation routes and key safety actions, supported by the Quake Cottage simulator to demonstrate what an 8.0‑magnitude event feels like. The goal is to embed basic behaviors – “Drop, Cover, and Hold On,” followed by rapid self‑evacuation to higher ground – in some of the coastal communities most at risk from a Cascadia subduction zone event.
B.C. sits on the Cascadia subduction zone, a roughly 1,000‑kilometer offshore fault capable of producing magnitude 9.0 earthquakes, similar to those that struck Japan in 2011 and Chile in 2010. Geological and historical evidence tied a “great” Cascadia earthquake and trans‑Pacific tsunami to January 1700, and Natural Resources Canada estimated there is about a 30% chance of a significant earthquake affecting the province in the next 50 years.
Scenario modeling presented at the 2023 Canadian‑Pacific Conference on Earthquake Engineering suggests that a 500‑year national earthquake could generate average expected economic losses of about $45.9 billion across Canada, with B.C. accounting for a substantial share of the damage due to its concentration of high‑value coastal assets.
A 2024 probabilistic earthquake‑tsunami study focused on Tofino found that combined shaking and tsunami damage could severely affect local infrastructure and tourism‑driven economies, underscoring the need for robust risk financing and insurance solutions alongside physical preparedness.
The events come against a backdrop of persistent protection gaps. Standard home insurance in Canada typically excludes earthquake; coverage is purchased as an add‑on or separate policy, often with percentage deductibles that can run into six figures for higher‑value properties.
IBC estimated that only about 50% to 65% of B.C. homeowners carry earthquake coverage, despite the high seismic risk, with uptake far lower in other at‑risk regions such as Quebec. Recent education campaigns by brokers and regulators have stressed that earthquake is not included in standard policies and highlighted the availability of cover, but cost, high deductibles and misconceptions continue to curb demand.
In response, some B.C. intermediaries have begun offering “earthquake deductible buy‑down” products to help households and strata corporations reduce the effective deductible in a major event, signaling an emerging niche for more nuanced risk‑sharing structures.
IBC has warned that a truly extreme quake in B.C. would be a systemic event for the property and casualty sector and the broader financial system. Its 2024–2025 advocacy has called for a national earthquake backstop, noting that Canada is the only high‑risk G7 country without a government‑supported catastrophe insurance mechanism.
The federal government’s 2025 budget responded by committing to consult federally regulated insurers and other stakeholders on measures to stabilize the insurance system in the event of an extreme earthquake, including potential risk‑sharing frameworks. For carriers, reinsurers and brokers, that signals earthquake is increasingly viewed not just as a line‑of‑business issue but as a macroprudential concern, with implications for capital, pricing and product design.
Initiatives like the High Ground Hikes and Quake Cottage demonstrations serve several purposes. They improve life‑safety outcomes, which is critical in any catastrophe model, and they raise risk awareness in regions where insurance take‑up still lags the underlying hazard. That gives brokers and carriers a more receptive audience for discussions about coverage, deductibles and mitigation options.
For coastal towns such as Tofino and Ucluelet – where tourism, hospitality and small businesses dominate – a Cascadia event would test both physical resilience and financial recovery.
As B.C. authorities and IBC push to build what they describe as a culture of preparedness, insurers, MGAs and brokers are likely to face growing expectations to match public‑sector education with clear, accessible earthquake products and advice – and to work with governments on realistic backstop structures before, rather than after, the next major event.
