The insurance industry says builders and municipalities have to give greater consideration to building better and smarter as the frequency and severity of weather-related disasters continue to rise.

According to Amanda Dean of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, 2024 was a “record-busting” year for the insurance industry. She says the Jasper fire, the Calgary hailstorm, and flooding in Ontario and Quebec contributed to the industry paying out nearly $8 billion in claims for weather-related events alone.

“To put that in perspective,” says Dean, “the last few years, insurers have been averaging about $2 billion a year for severe weather claims. And in the decade between 2001 and 2010, insurers were paying about $700 million, on average, annually for severe weather-related claims.” That’s 12 times the amount of money paid out says Dean.

Dean says builders and municipalities will need to be smarter about where and how new housing developments are established.

In some cases, says Dean, new subdivisions are being built in areas where the wastewater and sewer pipes feed into pipes that were built for capacities decades ago.

“We need to build better, and take a look at what that means, because if those pipes get overwhelmed with more effluent flowing through them, and then you add to that a severe rainstorm…then you’re going to have floods, you’re going to have sewer backups, and it’s all preventable.”