Housing crisis: What’s missing from an insurance perspective?
Housing strategies recently proposed by Canada’s federal and provincial governments still don’t address the issue of building in high-risk hazard areas, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) president and CEO Celyeste Power said during a recent industry event.
“One thing that continues to be missing in our housing plans, be it the federal government’s national housing strategy or housing strategies we’re seeing from provincial governments across the country, is not building in high-risk zones,” Power said Tuesday during a macroeconomics session at KPMG’s 2024 Insurance Conference in Toronto.
“So right now, if you read these strategies in the way that they’re written, you basically can build wherever you want, with whatever materials you want, just as long as it’s done quick and cheaply and perhaps…with reducing carbon emissions,” Power said. “That means we’re allowing people to continue to build in flood plains, continue to build in high-risk wildfire zones.” …[Continue Reading]