Canada’s extreme weather causes record $5.7 billion in damage

An onslaught of four natural disasters caused C$7.1 billion ($5.3 billion) in insured losses in just two months — more than any other summer on record.

In July and August, a ballistic hailstorm tore apart cars and buildings in Calgary, a wildfire burned large parts of the mountain resort of Jasper, Alberta, while parts of Quebec and southern Ontario, including Toronto, experienced flooding.

In total, Canadian insurers have posted $7.7 billion in catastrophic weather losses so far this year, a few months into the year, according to initial estimates collected by Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. and published by the Insurance Bureau of Canada. That’s more than the last two years combined and more than 10 times the average annual pay from 2001 to 2010.

The barrage of disasters led to 228,000 insurance claims, a 406 percent increase over the 20-year average, the IBC added.

The rising costs and difficulty of insuring against climate risks could force people to move, the country’s financial institutions watchdog told an audience of insurance professionals in Vancouver on Monday.

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