By Nivedita Balu
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada recorded insured losses of C$8.5 billion ($5.90 billion) in 2024, the largest annual sum ever recorded, following wildfires in Jasper, a hailstorm in Calgary and flooding in major cities, data from the Insurance Bureau of Canada released on Monday showed.
CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure indices provider, said four catastrophic events in just 27 days in 2024 exceeded C$7.5 billion in insured losses.
The wildfires in Jasper last summer forced some 25,000 people to evacuate the picturesque tourist town and its surroundings in Canada’s Rocky Mountains.
Just days after, severe thunderstorms over southern Alberta led to damaging hail, strong winds, heavy rain and localized flooding in parts of Calgary.
The hailstorm in Alberta was the second costliest event ever recorded in Canada, causing about C$3 billion in insured losses in just over an hour.
The annual tally shattered the previous record of C$6 billion from 2016, following the Fort McMurray wildfires – Canada’s costliest event ever.
The 2024 total is nearly triple the total insured losses recorded in 2023 and 12 times the annual average of C$701 million in the decade between 2001 and 2010, Insurance Bureau of Canada data showed.
South of the border, losses from the Los Angeles wildfirescould reach as high as $20 billion, potentially making it the costliest disaster in California’s history, analysts said.
Climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, is leading to drier and hotter conditions, driving extreme wildfires.
CatIQ’s CEO Laura Twidle noted that the Canadian insurance industry has faced back-to-back challenging years, including 24 catastrophic events in 2023.
“There is a clear need for continued collaboration to address the growing scale and frequency of catastrophe events across Canada but, more importantly, concerted action to mitigate the impacts of these events,” Twidle said.
($1 = 1.4417 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Toronto; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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