Canada’s Homes Becoming Uninsurable？
Episode Stats
Words per minute
188.75682
Summary
As wildfires intensify across the country, entire communities are becoming hard and in some cases impossible to insure. Premiums are skyrocketing, coverage is shrinking, and some insurers are quietly pulling out altogether. So what happens when your home, your biggest investment, can t be protected anymore? Today we break down the wildfire insurance problem in Canada, who s really paying the price, and whether this is the beginning of a much bigger housing and financial shock.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Canada is facing a growing crisis and most people don't even see it coming.
00:00:04.480
As wildfires intensify across the country, entire communities are becoming harder
00:00:12.120
Premiums are skyrocketing, coverage is shrinking,
00:00:14.640
and some insurers are quietly pulling out altogether.
00:00:17.800
So what happens when your home, your biggest investment, can't be protected anymore?
00:00:22.560
Today we break down the wildfire insurance problem in Canada.
00:00:25.140
who's really paying the price and whether this is the beginning of a much bigger housing and
00:00:30.540
financial shock joining me to talk about this brady wedham tpl's very own uh this is a problem
00:00:41.260
i almost think that we saw coming yeah well this has been an ongoing thing since you know before
00:00:47.700
i was even born that wildfires in canada or i think that happens um but they've definitely
00:00:52.360
been out of control over the past like three years but 10 years specifically but three years
00:00:57.520
have been really rough since 2023. That is true. I mean at one point I remember we had a fire
00:01:02.620
burning in the middle of Canada that was the size of Jamaica. The size of Jamaica which is if
00:01:07.560
anybody's ever been to Jamaica it's not a tiny place. No this was a big fire. Yeah. In fact you
00:01:12.680
got some of the stats there. Let's start with that. So for the last five years these are breakdowns
00:01:17.460
of the numbers. Those are just going to be some of the bigger numbers. 8,000 fires per year on
00:01:21.000
average what yeah 8 000 different separate fires on average um historical norm 2.1 million hectares
00:01:28.380
are burned annually which isn't always the worst thing like there's these are some of these these
00:01:34.720
are natural right this is the way that the the forest kind of decompresses itself um but it seems
00:01:39.740
to be out of control 2023 or 2023 is the worst on record we had 6 500 fires 18.5 million hectares
00:01:47.580
burned that's six times normal or more than normal that's incredible it's massive and i think that's
00:01:53.420
when it really came back even south of the border all of us felt that ontario got it
00:01:57.980
uh several provinces were affected by it several of the a lot of american social media is just
00:02:03.420
filled with saying what's going on in canada because my backyard is basically smoked out
00:02:07.420
and fried out yeah yeah so um that was the big one that's the one that made us all take a look
00:02:12.620
at the wildfire situation obviously it's 2023 there was a fire in every single province and
00:02:17.660
territory which means there wasn't a portion of canada didn't have some sort of outbreak that's
00:02:23.020
incredible yeah 2024 5600 fires 5.3 million hectares burned 2025 5 000 fires uh 8.9 million
00:02:32.140
hectares burned so it seems like it doesn't really matter the amount of fires it more amounts about
00:02:37.980
the amount of wind the moisture that year dryness etc etc the current reality is that thousands of
00:02:43.900
fires are still active each season and the burning rate is well above the historical averages if
00:02:49.020
you're looking at this per year so we are headed in a direction where and so therefore not surprising
00:02:55.980
the insurance companies are taking a stance where they're losing money against this you know year
00:03:01.100
over year incrementally and the reports for the past couple weeks uh directly on the news i've
00:03:08.160
Companies don't want to insure some of these places anymore.
00:03:12.020
Because I can't see insurance companies just pulling out of nowhere.
00:03:16.420
I think some of the headlines have been a little bit deceptive.
00:03:19.720
What they're actually doing, here's kind of the real story.
00:03:22.880
They're partnering with Wildfire Defense Services to protect homes.
00:03:28.980
they want to make sure that you have the right fire protection on your property,
00:03:32.520
that it's maintained to a degree that it's not going to get entangled further in the wildfires.
00:03:39.660
And then they're reassessing exposure and avoiding high-risk regions altogether.
00:03:44.740
So the insurance companies are actually assessing this right now.
00:03:48.740
So maybe you don't have the answer for this, but I'll ask you anyway.
00:03:52.780
If I was a young person and I'm going into, let's say, Alberta,
00:03:56.740
right where some of these fires seem to be predominant,
00:04:00.560
and I've never had to deal with an insurance company
00:04:02.840
or home insurance before outside of renter's insurance,
00:04:30.040
in a city or in a non-affected region so really what's happening is the insurance industry
00:04:36.920
is compensating and for a problem that is growing uh if we saw an immediate increase
00:04:43.240
in car accidents car insurance would go up and in fact in certain parts of canada they have that is
00:04:49.160
true brampton is a perfect example there are if you live in brampton your insurance is usually one
00:04:55.080
third or one yeah one third higher than it would be if anywhere else in the gta you know what i
00:05:00.320
don't even know what the number is anymore because that it might even be higher than that yeah but
00:05:04.760
depending on what's going on in insurance in a certain area and the response and the problems
00:05:08.880
that insurances had to pay off obviously they're going to compensate for it remember last so last
00:05:15.300
year i think it was the the beginning of the fall we have done we did an episode where we brought up
00:05:30.000
seemed like it was on fire at some point last year
00:05:48.160
required different service suddenly different filters because they were having to deal with
00:05:53.340
this smoke problem that was so immense and of course dealing with those fires we had fire
00:06:00.020
bombers going in uh you know not enough our fire service stretched to its end yeah and now new
00:06:07.040
fire bombers are on the way so goodness to some degree the government is trying to react to this
00:06:12.140
as well well for years they didn't like in 2023 it seemed like we had no answer uh last year it
00:06:17.140
seems like we were putting a plan together it seems like heading into this year we actually
00:06:20.800
have a plan this time well i think that we've also let forestry uh step back a little bit and
00:06:26.780
that has been a huge problem ongoing here in canada that we're not allowing for the right
00:06:33.520
kind of culling the right kind of cleaning in the forest and you know it's so funny because
00:06:37.680
here we stand at the precipice of everybody in the world pointing a finger at donald trump but
00:06:42.840
The one thing he did say was, we need to clean up our forests.
00:06:47.820
We almost made it through an entire episode without that impression.
00:06:54.040
I just am surprised that we almost made it through an entire episode with it.
00:07:07.420
It seems like we've brought in more procedures this year that are going to counterbalance this.
00:07:16.480
If you are camping, make sure your campfire is put out.
00:07:20.680
If you are a smoker, whether that's nicotine, cigars, cannabis, whatever it is, make sure you are not flicking this into the bush.
00:07:30.000
These little teeny tiny steps that we could take as everyday Canadians to stop some of these wildfires getting out of control.
00:07:36.020
Yes, there is an ecosystem inside of the forest.
00:07:42.040
I think many of the fires that we're talking about are human problems.
00:07:46.460
And, you know, a lot of them are proven to be that.
00:07:55.300
But how we handle it when it comes up really will make a difference.
00:07:59.820
And it's funny because industry experts in the insurance business aren't hiding.
00:08:04.400
they're not running away from this increase the media will make you think that they were though
00:08:08.720
because like i said for the past couple weeks i just seen some like every headline i've seen about
00:08:12.960
wildfires is uh we're not going to insure this house anymore this area of vancouver doesn't get
00:08:16.920
insured anymore this area of alberta is not going to be insured anymore sounds like that's not the
00:08:21.840
actual truth well not insured this is not insured at the same rate yeah not insured for the same
00:08:26.520
things and new requirements might be made but even industry experts are saying look this trend could
00:08:33.100
lead to parts of canada becoming effectively uninsurable altogether really absolutely once
00:08:39.820
again like a problem in your driving history that makes it impossible to insure you yeah where you
00:08:46.380
live and proximity to that kind of danger will make a difference in the future to what you're
00:08:52.740
paying and and and it's obviously so so when we take a look at what this problem is i think it
00:08:59.620
does behoove the federal government to make sure for the first time in decades we're actually
00:09:04.060
looking at our forestry from a management perspective and not just let's be growing
00:09:10.440
because what's been left is problematic fires that are costing civilians well and if those
00:09:18.260
problematic fires keep going we're going to end up uh just overpopulating uh pei yeah we'll all
00:09:25.220
just head over there head over there everyone in charlestown i know you've had it really good for
00:09:29.000
the past for however long um there's only been 30,000 to be there but there's going to be a
00:09:33.640
million of us showing up very soon if we don't get this uh taken care of i call anna green gable's
00:09:38.740
house i'm taking that uh what i would love to do is get feedback from the people watching or
00:09:46.980
listening to this right now are your insurance rates going up because of this i'd like to hear
00:09:51.020
from you and what kind of rates you're paying that you didn't expect to pay have you heard from your
00:09:56.060
insurance company we'd like to follow the story so please if you don't mind uh follow along with
00:10:01.140
the comments share it with a friend that you think might be in the same scenario and we would
00:10:05.260
love to talk more about this but for now insurance companies are pulling back on wildfire coverage in
00:10:11.120
areas that are dangerous and just like smoky only you could prevent forest fires i can't believe you
00:10:18.120
did that you're you're bugging me about the trump impersonation thanks we'll catch you next time
00:10:22.980
right here on tpl don't forget to subscribe tell a friend and if you don't mind supporting what we
00:10:27.940
do it keeps the wheels on the cart and every day we're growing thanks to you so we'll see you next
00:10:32.260
time patriotic means looking out for each other and fixing things together true patriotism is
00:10:45.920
being in the country you love surrounded by people you love and great weather being a patriot is
00:10:50.940
being a part of your community and caring for it.
00:10:53.100
It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from,
00:11:07.340
Well, actually true patriot love is the mission.