Housing strategies recently proposed by Canada’s federal and provincial governments still don’t address the issue of building in high-risk hazard areas, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) president and CEO Celyeste Power said during a recent industry event.
“One thing that continues to be missing in our housing plans, be it the federal government’s national housing strategy or housing strategies we’re seeing from provincial governments across the country, is not building in high-risk zones,” Power said Tuesday during a macroeconomics session at KPMG’s 2024 Insurance Conference in Toronto.
“So right now, if you read these strategies in the way that they’re written, you basically can build wherever you want, with whatever materials you want, just as long as it’s done quick and cheaply and perhaps…with reducing carbon emissions,” Power said. “That means we’re allowing people to continue to build in flood plains, continue to build in high-risk wildfire zones.”
Canada remains the only G7 country without an insurance scheme to manage losses caused by damage to properties at high risk of exposure to natural disasters, Power said. For example, IBC has been advocating for about 10 years for a national flood insurance program, a public-private partnership.
The program is expected to launch next year, providing access to affordable insurance for more than 1.5 million Canadian homeowners at high risk of flooding. Public Safety Canada told Canadian Underwriter in August the national flood insurance model is “undergoing internal review and methodology for how this model will be used and has not been finalized. This is a priority file for the government.”
That said, the timing of the next federal election remains up in the air (it must occur on or before Oct. 20, 2025), and it’s unclear how the national program will be affected if there’s a change in government.
Whole suite of adaptation measures needed
“But doing these sorts of programs is not enough,” Power added. “It needs to come with a suite of adaptation measures.”
For example, “if you get a payout from this program, you should not be able to get a second payout from the program,” she said. “You need to move. You need to retrofit.”
While Power’s “cautiously optimistic” about progress on the national flood insurance program, there still seems to be a lack of action on building disaster resiliency into housing plans, she warned.
“And I think that’s really where we need to see a change if we want to build affordable housing for people moving forward…When it comes to costs, the most expensive house that you can build is the one that you have to build twice.
“And so, we’re really calling on all governments — federal government, municipal, provincial governments — to play their role in building up…disaster resiliency so we can keep Canadians out of harm’s way, so that we don’t need to rely on sort of these public-private partnerships over the long-term and in a way that would not make them fiscally sustainable.”
In a separate session on climate-related catastrophes and insurance, Farhan Karamat, vice president of finance with Travelers Canada, said the industry needs to keep promoting sustainable practices. For example, this could include discounts for more renewable energy projects and resilient building practices.
“We need to be talking about flood defences, obviously, and improving the stormwater infrastructure so we are able to handle…higher and higher rainstorms coming through…” Karamat said.
“There are just things…as an industry we need to keep talking about with the levels of government,” he said. “And I think conversations like these obviously are going to help.
“But the last two years have shown, I think, that the insurance industry definitely needs to get some traction on these items.”
Feature image by iStock.com/shaunl