Toronto, Ontario — Numbers have started rolling in tallying up the destruction caused by the windstorm that blew through Quebec and eastern Ontario in December with the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) reporting more than $152 million in insured damage.
The IBC broke down the damage regionally, reporting more than $100 million in Ontario, more than $40 million in Quebec and less than $10 million in insured damage in the Atlantic provinces that felt the effects of the windstorm.
“Insured losses related to natural catastrophic events averaged $2 billion per year between 2009 and 2020, compared with an average of $422 million per year in the 1983 to 2008 period,” said v-p of federal affairs for IBC, Craig Stewart.
“The time to act is now. Canada needs to adapt to the reality of severe weather to better protect Canadians from coast to coast to coast.”
In IBC’s press release announcing the damage costs, the organization points out a lack of a solid national climate adaptation strategy in Canada that will help mitigate the significant costs to taxpayers that are incurred following a severe weather event.
