Decade of catastrophes cost re/insurers billions of dollars

In its latest release, Catastrophe Indices and Quantification (CatIQ) found that Canada had experienced about 100 catastrophes in the past 10 years.

Since 2008, Canadian insurance industry catastrophe losses amounted to $17.4 billion, CatIQ said in its report.

The analytics company also noted that April 2018 marked the month that Canada exceeded 100 catastrophes over the span of a decade. Additionally, CatIQ found that out of the top five costliest catastrophe events in the past 10 years, four had occurred in the latter half of the period.

Canada’s top five costliest catastrophes since 2008, according to CatIQ, are:

1. 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire
2. 2013 Southern Alberta Flood
3. 2013 Greater Toronto Area Flooding
4. 2014 Central Alberta Hailstorms
5. 2011 Slave Lake Fire

CatIQ remarked in its release that “it is becoming increasingly common for Canadian annual insured losses from CATs to exceed $1 billion,” particularly as severe weather events become more frequent for the country. The firm also warned that 2018 is “off to a costly start,” citing a recent ice storm event that downed trees and powerlines, as well as causing flooding in southern Ontario; the same weather event also left tens of thousands of residents in Quebec without power.