Transport committee  I'm going to deliberately sidestep that specific question and say that an alternative approach is to address those incentives that I mentioned before. The federal government stands up a national flood insurance program, funds it and backstops it, but then relies on the province

Transport committee  I wouldn't say that the role is necessarily to intervene. I would say that the federal government has a leadership role to play in trying to address these gaps. Canada is becoming a riskier place to insure. The reinsurers—those are the companies that we pass risk onto globally—ha

Transport committee  The answer is yes. Building for future conditions, not existing conditions, is essential at this point. The insurance industry is looking at how, essentially, through our policies, we can encourage building back better to a higher standard than what was there before. It's essent

Transport committee  There is a question about—and it was brought up before—forest management practices. There have been some studies done around what could be the role of wetlands around municipalities, encouraging wetland rehabilitation, etc., where humidity might be able to play a role. There is,

Transport committee  I'll have to get back to you with a report. I don't have specifics on it.

Transport committee  We've come a long way. With regard to flood mapping, seven years ago the flood maps for this country were terrible. We relied on what we received from Natural Resources Canada as an input. However, now there are global private-sector firms that model Canada for flooding, and the

Transport committee  I don't believe there are any discriminatory practices when it comes to underwriting. Essentially what happens is that underwriters will take a look at risk, and geographic factors do play in. It happens on property, and it happens on auto as well. Unfortunately, we're facing a

Transport committee  The insurance industry is regulated from a provincial level when it comes to its insurance market. It is a provincial regulatory issue.

Transport committee  I'm going to focus on the national flood insurance program as a unifier. What insurance does is it prices risk. Right now, our system is that we have 10% of the population exposed to high flood risk, and they rely on government bailouts, which is essentially free insurance. The i

Transport committee  It's a very important question. Frankly, it's a difficult one to answer. I'd say we're still learning as an industry. With regard to that event that you referenced, the $1.5 billion in losses, there were 100,000 claims that resulted, far more claims than came from Fort McMurray.

Transport committee  It's not an area we've spent a lot of time on. It's been an issue, as I understand it, since the 1990s. It's been a known issue in Ontario, which the government has had to grapple with. The reality is that these are unfunded liabilities, at the end of the day. Those should be a

Transport committee  Thank you for the question, MP O'Connell. The Canada Infrastructure Bank has terrific promise on the adaptation side. The scale of the problem, as you've heard from witnesses, is far too great for any level of government to address alone. The private sector should be at the tabl

Transport committee  No, of course not.

Transport committee  Very quickly, the Canadian Climate Institute just released a report in collaboration with Addenda Capital, which is the investment arm of Co-operators insurance. It laid out a number of ways in which you can attract private sector capital in basically resilient infrastructure wit

Transport committee  Yes. Thank you for the question. Canada is in a very interesting position in that national adaptation strategies have been tabled by countries around the world. It's actually now a UN requirement. Certain jurisdictions, such as New Zealand and Britain, have done an excellent job