Canadian homeowners could significantly reduce damage from sewer backup, wildfire and hail with relatively simple, affordable measures, but uptake remains low, and the benefits are poorly understood, according to Jocelyn Laflamme (pictured), vice‑president, actuarial services and underwriting at Desjardins General Insurance Group.
Laflamme said effective mitigation needs to be looked at “by peril”, because the right actions are highly hazard‑specific and often region‑specific.
For water‑related losses such as sewer backup and ground infiltration, Laflamme said there is a clear set of practical measures homeowners can take.
“The practical actions are installing a backwater valve and a sump pump, managing the grading on your property so water flows away from the house, and ensuring your downspouts don’t send water into the street and, ultimately, into the municipal network,” he said.
He described these steps as relatively straightforward, but said they have an important collective dimension as well as a personal one.
He said measures like this are a good example of collective action: if most homeowners implemented them, the combined effect could help reduce the severity of events like storm Debby, which hit Montreal in 2024.
Laflamme said more consistent messaging is needed to help owners understand that small changes on individual properties, multiplied across a neighbourhood, can reduce pressure on municipal systems when intense rainfall hits.
Turning to wildfire, Laflamme said managing vegetation around the home is the single most important step for households in exposed areas.
“If you have a nice pine tree just a couple of feet from your home, it’s not a good idea, and the same goes for bushes close to the structure. This is the single most important measure.”
Laflamme said that for wildfire, what homes are made of can be just as important as how vegetation is managed. More fire‑resistant siding and roofing materials are preferable to options such as vinyl or wood‑based products, and deck construction should also be considered from a fire‑risk perspective.
He added that, as with flood, wildfire mitigation has a strong collective dimension in the wildland–urban interface, where homes and forests meet. “If citizens living in the wildland–urban interface manage vegetation properly around their homes, we can reduce the severity of Jasper‑type events,” he said.
For hail, Laflamme said the focus is again on building materials, with siding and roofing choices doing most of the work. More resilient products are preferable to vinyl or aluminium siding, and in hail‑prone areas homeowners should opt for higher‑grade asphalt shingles designed to withstand impact.
He added that hail, along with sewer backup/ground infiltration and wildfire, is an area where individual property decisions can materially change outcomes.
“Those are the three perils that are the most impacted by these weather events and where citizens can take meaningful action,” he said.
Laflamme said media attention tends to focus on the most dramatic weather events, but heavy rainfall and wind events don't always make headlines – even though they are a genuine and recurring cause of concern for insurers and homeowners alike.
“We do get big media headlines about certain types of severe weather,” he said, noting that other hazards are less visible despite their broader impact.
From an insurer’s standpoint, he said, Emergency Preparedness Week and similar campaigns should be used not just to promote response plans but to highlight concrete, peril‑specific mitigation steps that can be taken well before the next major weather event.
“To me, preparedness is not only about what happens when the event occurs, but also about the actions we take well in advance to prevent and reduce the impact,” he said.
