The summer of 2024 has gone down as the most expensive season for insured severe weather losses in Canadian history. With devastating floods, wildfires, and hailstorms, it served as a harsh wake-up call about the growing toll of climate-fueled disasters. For Alberta and the rest of the country, this isn’t just a seasonal anomaly, it’s a signal that the severe weather landscape is changing, fast.

Insurance companies are in the business of risk management and mitigation. They use data and analytics to determine the likelihood of a risk occurring and what the costs for the respective damages would be if it were to happen. If insurance is not available or prohibitively expensive, the risk is probably quite high. This leads us to the main question of the day; what is the risk climate change poses to Canadians and what insurance companies are doing about it?