About Insurance Bureau of Canada
Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is the national industry association representing Canada's private home, auto and business insurers. Its member companies make up 90% of the property and casualty (P&C) insurance market in Canada. For more than 50 years, IBC has worked with governments across the country to help make affordable home, auto and business insurance available for all Canadians. IBC supports the vision of consumers and governments trusting, valuing and supporting the private P&C insurance industry. It champions key issues and helps educate consumers on how best to protect their homes, cars, businesses and properties.
P&C insurance touches the lives of nearly every Canadian and plays a critical role in keeping businesses safe and the Canadian economy strong. It employs more than 118,000 Canadians, pays $6.7 billion in taxes and has a total premium base of $48 billion.
For media releases and more information, visit IBC's Media Centre at www.ibc.ca. Follow IBC on Twitter @InsuranceBureau or like us on Facebook. If you have a question about home, auto or business insurance, contact IBC's Consumer Information Centre at 1-844-2ask-IBC.
About Natural Resources Canada and Canada's Adaptation Platform
Natural Resources Canada chairs the Adaptation Platform, which brings together Canada's expertise, information and financial resources to enable the development and widespread use of adaptation information and tools. The Platform fosters collaboration across Canada's provincial and territorial governments, federal government departments, industry associations and professional organizations, to collaborate on shared adaptation priorities. For more information, visit adaptation.nrcan.gc.ca.
About the Halifax Regional Municipality
The Halifax Regional Municipality is the government for the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada, delivering programs and services to more than 413,700 residents across 200 communities and neighbourhoods. Halifax boasts the friendliness of a small town with the amenities, culture and opportunities of a modern urban centre. As home to some of the brightest minds and best educational institutions in the world, Halifax is forward thinking, resilient and resourceful, with a reputation as an energetic, caring community that embraces creativity and innovation.
About Mississauga
As Canada's sixth largest city, Mississauga is home to 752,000 residents and more than 54,000 businesses, including more than 60 Fortune 500 companies with Canadian head offices or major divisional head offices.
BACKGROUNDER
The Study of Economic Impacts of the Weather Effects of Climate Change estimated a portion of the future costs of climate-related extreme weather hazards. It examined how climate change could affect two Canadian communities – Halifax, N.S., and Mississauga, Ont. – in the coming years. (For the purposes of the study, researchers made the assumption that no new adaptation measures would be implemented by the cities during the timeframe studied; however, both cities are pursuing ambitious climate change adaptation strategies.) The results characterize the types of impacts all communities will need to prepare for as a result of climate change.
Insurance Bureau of Canada conducted the study with support from Natural Resources Canada, the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources, and Green Analytics.
How is climate change affecting Canadian communities?
In recent decades, Canada's climate has become warmer. Between 1950 and 2010, the air temperature increased by an average of 1.5°C. This rate of warming is about twice the global average over the same time period.
Observed trends in damaging weather patterns arising from climate change include:
- Frequent heavy-precipitation events associated with an increased risk of flooding
- A higher incidence of freezing rain and ice storms during cold months
- Long hot spells and more frequent hot extremes, droughts and wildfires.
These trends will continue and may become more pronounced as the climate continues to change.
Key study findings
Even under current climate conditions, the economic costs of severe weather events will have significant impacts from 2015 to 2040. Also, local economies will be hurt by business interruptions, and community resources will be needed to repair the direct damage to homes and businesses.
In addition, the research shows that the cumulative effect from the impacts of extreme weather events between 2015 and 2040 will rise with any acceleration in the pace of climate change.
Summary of results
The study results reflect the assumption that no new adaptation measures are undertaken, and they represent just a portion of the full economic costs of changing weather patterns caused by climate change. In part, this is because researchers analyzed only two severe weather events per community. As well, some costs could not be captured because of gaps in the available information. Additionally, certain costs – such as the costs of weather events to human health and the costs to restore damaged coastal wetlands – were outside the scope of the study.
In the chart below, selected cost impacts from the study are shown. It is to be noted that "average annual costs" are reported because in any given year the frequency and/or severity of extreme weather events will fluctuate.
| | | Findings | |
| | Extreme weather hazards studied | Average annual economic costs by 2040 assuming current climate conditions | Economic costs from a major (one-in-25-year) event by 2040 assuming no change from today's climate |
| Halifax | Storm surge flooding | $5 million per year | Up to $30 million |
| | Extreme wind | $18 million per year | Up to $123 million |
| Mississauga | Stormwater flooding | $32 million per year | Up to $195 million |
| | Freezing rain | $9 million per year | Up to $23 million |
The full study can be downloaded from www.ibc.ca.
Definitions
Damage from a major event: Direct damages to residential, commercial and institutional property, business interruption impacts, and associated rebuilding and repairs attributed to the occurrence of a single major severe weather event
Extreme wind: High winds of up to 50 kilometres an hour or greater over large areas
Freezing rain: Rain that falls during the autumn and winter months that freezes on impact and builds up on surfaces
Storm surge: An abnormal rise in water levels along a coast that is caused largely by high winds, often as a result of a hurricane or severe winter storm
Stormwater flooding: A result of heavy precipitation that overwhelms stormwater infrastructure causing flooding in urban areas
Some of Halifax's and Mississauga's key actions to adapt
Halifax Regional Municipality
- Implementing its Municipal Climate Change Action Plan
- Mapping sea level rise and land use vulnerability
- Updating its Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (emergency management guide)
- Performing flood plain studies and overland flooding/stormwater research, and developing policies
- Participating in an EU-Canada urban policy exchange focused on climate adaptation/resiliency and low carbon development
City of Mississauga
- Examining risks to the corporation from climate change
- Working with Peel Climate Change Strategy Partnership to examine risks and impacts to the community from climate change
- Implementing a stormwater charge to better maintain and expand stormwater infrastructure
Previous IBC research
This report is the latest in a research series that IBC is conducting to increase community resilience to climate change across the country.
IBC released its Telling the Weather Story study in 2012, which showed the effect of climate change on Canada's regions. In 2014, IBC successfully completed the pilot of its municipal risk assessment tool (MRAT) in three Canadian cities. MRAT is an innovative web-based statistical tool to help municipalities evaluate the impact of climate change specifically on their sewer and stormwater infrastructure.