Last year ranks among the top five worst years on record in insured damage from extreme weather events, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) said, but it wasn’t the worst.
Noteworthy severe weather events last year include the Atlantic Canada cold snap; Ontario and Quebec spring ice storm; the Tantallon, N.S., wildfire; Nova Scotia flooding; Prairies summer storms; the Winnipeg hailstorm; Ontario severe summer storms; the Okanagan and Shuswap, B.C., area wildfires; and the Behchokǫ̀-Yellowknife and Hay River, N.W.T, wildfires.
The record number of wildfires ranked as Environment Canada’s top weather story for 2023.
These are the 10 most expensive years for natural disasters in Canada as measured by insurance payouts, adjusted for inflation in 2022.
1. 2016 — $5.96 billion
Notable event: Fort McMurray wildfire
2. 2013 — $3.87 billion
Notable events: Floods in Alberta, Greater Toronto Area; Toronto ice storm
3. 2022 — $3.4 billion
Notable events: Hurricane Fiona; wildfires
4. 2023 — $3.13 billion
Notable events: B.C. wildfires; Nova Scotia floods
5. 1998 — $2.83 billion
Notable event: Eastern Canada ice storm
6. 2021 — $2.48 billion
Notable events: Calgary hailstorm; B.C. floods
7. 2020 — $2.46 billion
Notable events: Fort McMurray flood; Calgary hailstorm
8. 2018 — $2.4 billion
Notable events: Ottawa-area tornado; New Brunswick flash floods
9. 2011 — $1.97 billion
Notable events: Slave Lake, Alta., wildfire
10. 2012 — $1.65 billion
Notable event: Calgary rainstorm