Saskatchewan summer storms cost $25 million in insured losses, SGI reports

SGI reported three major summer storm events in Saskatchewan with claims of $25 million in insured losses.

“The majority of that was on the property side,” said Tyler McMurchy, SGI spokesperson. “Those claims to SGI Canada totalled approximately $17.5 million and then for catastrophic storm claims on the auto fund side of the company, that’s another $17 and a half million.”

The damage from the three major storm events included vehicles submerged in water, home damages related to winds, water and sewer backups.

The first storm event to yield a lot of claims to SGI occurred on May 27th, when central parts of the province experienced heavy amounts of rainfall, severe heat warnings and even tornadoes.

1:57 Central parts of Saskatchewan experienced severe thunderstorms on Canada Day evening

At the beginning of June, there was a storm that affected Assiniboine, Prince Albert, La Ronge and Regina areas that resulted in vehicles being submerged and also a number of home claims.

According to SGI, this summer’s numbers are significantly lower than previous years when SGI would typically see anywhere from $75 to $100 million in storm-related claims.

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“Compared to previous years, this is much lower than what we anticipated,” said McMurchy.

The biggest storm events occurred on Canada Day long weekend when both Saskatchewan and Alberta were impacted and cost over $100 million in insured damages.

Hundreds of homes, businesses and vehicles were damaged along with tens of thousands of people who were without power for a period of time.

“The damage that happened in Saskatchewan, as well as Alberta, was over $100 million in insured damages,” said Rob de Pruis, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) National Director, Consumer and Industry Relations.

“Specifically for Saskatchewan … there was somewhere around $15 million specific to Saskatchewan for those insured damages for the vehicles, homes and businesses that were damaged.”

IBC said in June and July between Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, there’s been over $300 million in insured losses in the three provinces alone due to a variety of different storms.

IBC could not provide a figure of the costs in insured losses due to summer storm events for this past summer in Saskatchewan as they only report on storms designated as catastrophes where insured loss estimates exceed more than $30 million.