Canadian businesses aren’t just underinsured - they’re uninformed. As risks multiply, the real danger isn’t what’s missing from a policy, but what’s missing from the conversation.
In Metro Vancouver, personal earthquake insurance uptake sits at around 60%, and on Vancouver Island, 70%. But coverage is still optional, and awareness of its importance remains lower than it should be.
Cyberattacks are rising in tandem, yet small businesses remain underinsured and unaware. In 2024 alone, insured losses from natural disasters in Canada reached $8.5 billion - smashing previous records. Annual losses greater than $3 billion are no longer the exception, but the pattern.
The issue isn’t access to coverage. It’s that many clients don’t know they need it or assume they already have it. That disconnect - between the risks people face and what they understand - is where real damage begins.
Jamie Lyons (pictured), president and CEO of Westland Insurance, believes the industry’s real failure isn’t about products - it’s about communication. His solution? Elevate and modernize the role of the broker.
Under his leadership, Westland is doubling down on the foundational role brokers have always played: helping clients understand and navigate risk. This includes embedding relevant and up-to-the moment risk education into the core of its business model, tying broker training to performance metrics and strategy. It’s a bet on people, not platforms: that informed, confident advisors are the key to closing Canada’s protection gaps.
“During times of uncertainty, clients really rely on brokers for that advisory-based relationship,” he said. “It’s probably the first time in the history of our organization where we’ve really created a hard KPI around that.”
That KPI - Westland’s 10% training cohort - is a tangible target: train at least 10% of the workforce every year in business-specific knowledge across emerging risk areas like cyber, AI, climate risk and beyond. This goes beyond standard compliance training. It's about arming staff with the impactful insight needed to guide clients through today’s most pressing risks, which are constantly evolving.
“We need to level up from a skill and knowledge perspective,” Lyons said. “That starts at the top of the organization and goes right down to the front lines.”
The emphasis on training is tied directly to performance reviews and bonus structures. Leaders are evaluated not just on team results, but on whether those teams are gaining the knowledge needed to handle a shifting risk landscape. And it’s not limited to brokers.
“They may not be on the front lines having risk-based, advisory-based conversations,” Lyons said. “But they still need to understand our business to be able to help support those who do.”
Training, in this view, is core infrastructure - essential to identifying and closing protection gaps that many Canadians may not even know exist. Lyons pointed to earthquake coverage in British Columbia, where uptake remains too low against a real and growing threat.
“A significant number of British Columbians don’t buy earthquake insurance when the risk is very real and the catastrophic loss potential is immense,” he said. “And that’s not just a client conversation. It’s actually, believe it or not, a more systemic financial conversation. What does that do to the financial system? What does it do to mortgages? What does it do to the banks?”
This broader perspective is what’s driving Westland’s proactive approach. After recent seismic activity in BC, brokers were directed to reach out to clients, opening tough, but necessary, conversations.
“That’s the whole intent behind building excellence in a risk area like cyber, where we’ve recently partnered with Boxx Insurance,” Lyons said. “There’s a really good case to be made for why you need cyber insurance. And that’s evolved. That’s changed. It’s not what it was five years ago.”
SMEs - many of which make up Westland’s client base - are especially vulnerable, with cyber coverage still largely underpenetrated. That makes outreach and education not just strategic but essential.
“There have been cyber incidents and significant financial, operational, strategic implications to what we’ve seen,” Lyons said. “And we’re unfortunately able to draw more and more examples from the market that are relevant.”
But education alone isn’t enough. Lyons stresses the need for internal feedback loops - connecting the front-line insights of brokers with broader product development and strategy.
“Any areas where there’s a gap between what would potentially be an insured loss and an economic loss - that’s where we mobilize. And where we need to increasingly mobilize, as a company and as an industry,” he said.
Climate risk, once a fringe concern, is now front and center. Lyons noted that last year’s nearly $9 billion in weather-related catastrophe losses in Canada was triple the recent norm, which has trended upwards from previous historical norms. Flooding, in particular, presents a flashpoint and an opportunity.
“There are great public/private models - international models,” he said, referencing the UK’s Flood Re program. “The conversation in Canada is progressing and getting closer to where it needs to be. But it also needs to be dynamic. It needs to be bigger and broader as the world around us continuously gets riskier.”
Still, Lyons insisted that government involvement and regulation isn’t the sole solution. The more immediate lever is the relationship between insurance broker and client.
“It’s ensuring that we’re proactive in having those conversations, not just reacting post-event because it’s top of mind,” he said.
After a recent hail storm that caused billions in damage, Westland immediately reached out to clients. The aim wasn’t just to promote expanded coverage - it was to reframe risk in a way people could understand.
“A hail event that causes $3 billion in insured loss is a bit of an eye-opener for the industry and for individuals,” Lyons said.
Whether it’s hail, earthquake or cyberattack, Westland has made it a point to use each crisis as an opening for education. These conversations don’t always lead to new policies, but they often do lead to better-informed clients, and that is the role of the broker.
“There’s a lot of questions there,” Lyons said. “What can we do to help close those protection gaps?”
The answer isn’t a shiny product or a new tech platform. It’s people. Trained, confident, knowledgeable people - brokers who can make sense of risk and communicate it in real terms.
“What that education looks like could be vertical specific, depending on which part of the organization you’re operating within,” Lyons said. “But it is going to be something that ultimately enables us to have better conversations about risk with clients.”
