Insured damage from severe weather-related damage reached an all-time high of $8.5 billion, and most of that happened in the summer months.
IBC’s National Direct of Climate Change Advocacy, Jason Clark, stresses that we need to keep in mind, particularly as we witness the wildfires in California, that what we really talking about here is individuals, families, and communities where lives are being completely up ended.
The $8.5 billion is the insured damage tally and doesn’t take into consideration the staggering financial losses of hundreds of thousands of Canadians dealing with the aftermath of these weather events.
The highest insured damage was the hailstorm in Calgary at $3 billion followed by the remnants of Hurricane Debby hitting Quebec and then at $1.1 billion, the Jasper wildfire.
Saskatchewan’s largest insured damage weather events were the severe storms in June at an estimated total of $135 million.
To put the $8.5 billion in context, Clark says it’s about 12 times the annual average between 2001 and 2020 of around $700 million.