The rise of natural disasters in Canada is leading to higher insurance premiums, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. “Parts of Canada that haven’t typically experienced natural disasters are now experiencing these big weather events,” said the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s Liam McGuinty, adding that the same is true when it comes to wildfires. “You’re seeing wildfires in parts of the country that we’re not used to, from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia, to fires encroaching on the Metro Vancouver area,” he said. According to a recent Statistics Canada report, insurance premiums have increased the most in the province of Alberta, where in the last 20 years, premiums have spiked more than 390 per cent. Across the country, home insurance increases have outpaced inflation in Canada over the last few years due to the increasing risk posed by natural disasters. “The trend line is very clear. We’re getting hit harder every single year,” said McGuinty. “More Canadians are being exposed to natural disasters and we’re all paying the price for it.” As deadly infernos make headlines across the country, dangerous downpours are the leading source of insured losses in Canada. “Approximately six per cent of the Canadian housing market is uninsurable for flood risk. That’s approximately 850,000 homes unable to get flooding coverage,” said Kathryn Bakos from the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation. In 2025, flooding caused over $1 billion in insured losses in Canada. In 2024, it caused more than $4 billion in insured losses. And now, Canadians who call high-risk flood zones home are running into issues not only with insurance companies but also with mortgage providers. “Mortgage providers such as Desjardins Financial have stopped offering mortgages in certain high-risk flood zones, such as in Quebec, where flood risk exceeds five per cent on an annual basis,” says Bakos. Bakos says that while real Canadians are being impacted, Canada does remain a very insurable country. There are also actions people can take to reduce the flooding and wildfire risk at their home, from downloading the WeatherCan application on their phone to simple steps like removing debris from around their home that could plug an outdoor drain. “We need to become a more proactive society, rather than a reactive society. We need to be putting measures into the system to get risk out of the system before these events happen,” said Bakos.
