While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged during his re-election campaign that he would set aside part of the federal budget for climate change initiatives, insurance industry stakeholders have urged that the federal government to prioritize the immediate development of proper flood maps.
According to data from the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), insurers have spent on average $1.9 billion each year from 2009 to 2019 on catastrophic flooding claims, compared to the yearly average of $422 million for the 1983-2008 period. This significant increase was driven by flood loss, and most of the claims were for damage to residential property.
“Flooding is by far the single greatest peril facing Canadians as a result of climate change,” IBC vice-president of federal affairs Craig Stewart told Reuters.
Although flood maps – which can point out which areas are at high risk of flooding – can help insurers underwrite flood insurance for a particular region and even warn homebuyers of flood-prone neighborhoods, Stewart warned that the natural resources ministry has proposed that while it would do the mapping itself, it would focus only on river and lake flooding. The ministry would also take 10 years to develop the maps.
“We can’t take a decade to complete flood maps for this country, and we need to make sure we’re mapping urban and coastal flooding as well,” Stewart remarked. He added that if the government collaborates with the private sector, the maps could be finished within three years.
Apart from the speed of the maps’ development, industry experts are also concerned about the accuracy of the maps. Blair Feltmate – head of the University of Waterloo’s Intact Center on Climate Adaptation Faculty of Environment – said that current mapping is on average about 20 to 25 years out of date.
