Governments urged to significantly boost investments in resiliency to better protect communities
Insured damage caused by severe weather events exceeded $2.4 billion in 2025, according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ). This makes 2025 the tenth costliest year on record for severe weather–related insured losses in Canada.
Noteworthy severe weather events in 2025 include the late-March ice storm in Ontario and Quebec, May wildfires in Flin Flon, Manitoba, and La Ronge, Saskatchewan, a July hailstorm in Calgary, Alberta, severe storms across the Prairies in August that caused significant hail damage to vehicles in Brooks, Alberta, and December floods in British Columbia.
“Severe weather events continue to intensify. Two decades ago, insured losses seldom surpassed $500 million in a year. Today, annual costs exceeding $1 billion have become the norm. This shift demands that we fundamentally rethink how we build, plan and restore communities across our country,” said Celyeste Power, President and CEO, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). “The best way to keep communities safe and insurance widely available and affordable is to invest seriously in resilience now.”
Between 2006 and 2015, Canada’s annual insured losses due to catastrophic weather events and wildfires totaled $14 billion, adjusted for inflation. By contrast, between 2016 and 2025, annual insured losses due to catastrophic weather events and wildfires totaled $37 billion – nearly tripling the previous decade. The average number of claims have nearly doubled over this same time span.
“We must stop putting Canadians in harms way. As Canada embarks on a historic housing plan, investing in community and household resilience is significantly more cost-effective than paying to rebuild following every disaster,” added Power. “That’s why IBC and its members continue to urge governments at all levels to invest in infrastructure that defends against floods, adopt land-use planning rules that ensure homes are not built on flood plains, facilitate FireSmart initiatives in communities in high-risk wildfire zones, and implement long-delayed changes to building codes that better protect homes and livelihoods.”
The amount of insured damage is an estimate provided by CatIQ (www.CatIQ.com) under licence to IBC.
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