Severe weather drives record-breaking insurance claims in Sask.

Vanessa Big Eagle is a band councilor who manages the homes of the Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation.

Severe weather damaged her own.

“We’re used to any type of extreme weather, but the winds that happened in May were crazy,” she said.

The weather damaged 23 of the 54 homes in her community, 160 kilometres southeast of Regina. Wind blew off much of the roof of her own house, making it the most damaged, Big Eagle said.

She’s been filing insurance claims for the homes, which are managed by the First Nation. Most are still damaged, forcing one family to stay in a hotel, she said.

“As we go year to year to year now, is it expected now? Is it something we should have budgeted?”

Severe weather is leading to record-breaking amounts of insured losses in Saskatchewan, according to new data, which could lead to higher insurance rates.

According to current data from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc., last year Saskatchewan had the highest dollar amount of insured losses from large weather events — $450 million — in any year since the firm started collecting data in 2008.

The extreme winds in June caused the most insured loss of any event recorded in the province — $240 million — followed by the northern wildfires last summer.

Laura Twidle, president and CEO of Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc., said the last two years stand out.

“Fires are covered, and it was such a severe year. Last year definitely was the first time we’ve seen that from Saskatchewan, where it’s had such a significant insured loss,” Twidle said.

What does this mean for insurance?

Jason Thistlethwaite, a professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, said even people whose property remains unscathed could be affected.

“Insurers are a business. They’re going to look to recoup those losses, and the one way they’re going to do that is through higher premiums and more restrictive coverage,” he said.

Canada should focus more on preventing property damage, as opposed to recouping losses after the fact, Thistlethwaite said.

“It’s really clear that our current approach to managing climate risk is becoming increasingly expensive. The policy challenge is to shift away from repeatedly paying for the recovery of these disasters and towards measures that reduce the risk before the disaster occurs.”

Repair companies say demand is growing

Duane Lee and Allison Thompson own Leeway Mechanical Inc., a plumbing company in Oxbow, Sask. 

They said they’re getting more calls to fix homes damaged by extreme weather.

“We’ve been affected way more than I’ve ever seen before. I don’t know exactly how much different it’s been over a long term, but the last few years we’ve really noticed it,” Lee said.

This includes pumping water out of basements and patching roofs. One day they had 17 calls about broken air conditioners within an hour and a half, and earlier this year a tree fell onto the roof of their son’s home and pierced through its ceiling.

”The weather has increased our regular workload significantly,” Thompson said.

Chris Kaban, the operational manager for restoration company Fire & Flood, said severe weather has led to an uptick in calls, particularly to the company’s Prince Albert location.

“Last year was the fire season. This year is the flood season,” he said.

Weather is part of the reason the number of employees working for the company has increased from 85 to 150 in the past two to three years, he said.

“We’ve talked in the office and we haven’t seen storms like what we’ve seen since like the early ’90s.”