Calgary homeowners look for answers to soaring home insurance costs after hailstorms
It was one of the costliest storms in Canadian history, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
A hailstorm that swept through Calgary in August of 2024 did an estimated $2.8 billion in damage — the latest and most destructive of a number of storms that have struck northeast Calgary neighbourhoods in recent years.
Some homeowners claim the August storm alone did up to $35,000 in damage to their home.
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The massive hail storm that hit Calgary in August 2024 was one of the costliest storms in Canadian history with close to $3 billion in damage. Global News
Now, many residents are facing a huge increase in insurance premiums that have doubled, tripled or even more — some say they can't even get insurance for their homes.
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With another summer storm season approaching, on Friday, residents of the communities of Redstone, Cityscape, Skyview Ranch and Cornerstone hosted a press conference to talk about the 'crisis.'
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Harlin Kaur owns a house in Cornerstone.
'We weren't even being offered insurance — we were being denied coverage all together,' said Kaur. 'I said increase my premium, it's OK, increase my premium, don't deny me coverage. But they gave me a letter that said our insurance company isn't covering anyone with T3J or T3N postal codes moving forward.'
Kaur said more than 10 insurance providers denied her and her parents coverage, and when they finally found a company that would insure them, the premiums increased from $180 per month to more than $500 per month.
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Harlan Kaur said the insurance premiums for her house in Cornerstone have gone from $180 per month to more than $500. per month. Global News
Rob Dupree, director of Consumer and Industry Relations for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said he sympathizes with the frustrations that some residents are feeling but also said there have been some very significant weather events over the past five years — including last summer's hailstorm.
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The storm was the costliest event in Canada's history, with over 130,000 claims worth more than $3 billion in insured damaged, which is 'putting significant pressure' on home insurance premiums.
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On top of the hailstorms, Dupree said there was the Jasper fire, major flooding in Ontario, the looming threat of tariffs that are impacting many construction materials, increased labour costs and skilled labour shortages — so all of these things are compounding to put pressure on people's home insurance premiums.'
'The best thing for people to do,' said Dupree, 'because there are dozens of insurance companies that operate in Calgary, is to shop around.
'Some insurance companies make individual business decisions on the types of coverage or what coverage they offer,' added Dupree, 'but there are other companies that are able to provide coverage.'
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Calgary City Councillor Raj Dhaliwal is calling on all levels of government to work together to make changes to the building code to prevent future costly weather disasters. Global News
Calgary city councillor Raj Dhaliwal, who represents the area and was also at Friday's media event, said changes are needed to the building code.
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'How do we work with other levels of government, most importantly with provincial government, to see what kind of changes could be made in the build type with the building code,' said Dhaliwal.
'So we can ensure that the new buildings that are coming in this area, which is what we call a hailstorm alley — have more resilient siding and roofing so we don't have a repeat of what happened last year.'
But Dhaliwal said so far the response from the province has not been encouraging.
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Reacting to an inquiry from Global News, the office of Alberta's municipal affairs minister, Joseph Schow, provided a written statement that said the province is aware of the concerns of residents and is 'working across government to find ways that may help address these concerns. '
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'This includes new province-wide building code requirements, introduced last year, that strengthens construction standards that protect against environmental conditions such as weather.'
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Already facing skyrocketing home insurance costs, or unable to get insurance at all, many homeowners in northeast Calgary are afraid of what this summer's storm season will bring. Global News
Faced with skyrocketing premiums — or unable to even get insurance — many northeast Calgary residents are fearful of what this summer's storm season will bring.
'There's a good chance, just because there is a trend,' said Kaur. 'June, July, August is when they usually occur, so I do believe there's a good chance there will be another one.'
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