Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 Geneva, Switzerland (Feb. 10, 2025) – The World Economic Forum has released the 20th edition of its Global Risks Report, which reveals an increasingly fractured global landscape in 2025, where escalating geopolitical, environmental, societal and technological challenges threaten stability and progress. This edition presents the findings of the Global Risks Perception Survey 2024-2025 (GRPS), which captures insights from over 900 experts worldwide. The report analyses global risks through three timeframes to support decision- makers in balancing current crises and longer-term priorities. Preface The multi-decade structural forces highlighted in last year’s Global Risks Report – technological acceleration, geostrategic shifts, climate change and demographic bifurcation – and the interactions they have with each other have continued their march onwards. The ensuing risks are becoming more complex and urgent, and accentuating a paradigm shift in the world order characterized by greater instability, polarizing narratives, eroding trust and insecurity. Moreover, this is occurring against a background where today’s governance frameworks seem ill-equipped for addressing both known and emergent global risks or countering the fragility that those risks generate. This is the 20th edition of the Global Risks Report. Looking back over the last two decades, environmental risks...

Montreal, QC (Feb. 26, 2025) – For a third consecutive year, distracted driving ranks as the primary risk factor for Canadian drivers. That’s one of the key findings from the latest data in an annual survey conducted by Desjardins Insurance, one of Canada’s largest property and casualty insurers and an influential road safety advocate. In Desjardins Insurance’s most recent survey, approximately 4,000 Canadians shared their opinions about behaviours and habits on the road, with 60% of the people surveyed pointing to distracted driving as the top risk factor. The largest perceived distractions include things like what’s happening outside of the car (34%), cellphone-related distractions (31%), drivers using a media console or interface (24%), and eating and drinking (22%). Other top risk factors identified were alcohol impaired driving (59%) and aggressive driving (46%). When asked specifically about aggressive driving, only 6% of Canadians consider themselves to be an aggressive driver, although 71% say they regularly see aggressive driving behaviours when they are behind the wheel. “This survey is just one of the ways Desjardins is working to be road a safety advocate; to protect and help save lives on our roads,” said Valérie Lavoie, President and COO of Desjardins General Insurance...

Ottawa, ON (Feb. 21, 2025) – Canada’s boreal forest is vast and experiences some of the world’s largest and most intense wildfires. On average, about 8,000 wildfires burn over 2.1 million hectares of forest every year, representing a territory equivalent to almost half the size of Nova Scotia. About $1 billion is spent each year in Canada to combat wildfires. The Government of Canada recognizes this growing threat and remains committed to protecting its communities, natural resources, and wildlife habitats. Satellite Earth observation is the only way to provide daily data on all active wildfires spanning the entire Canadian territory. With the objective of strengthening Canada’s wildfire monitoring capacity, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, has announced that following an open competitive procurement process, exactEarth Ltd., a subsidiary of Spire Global Canada, was awarded a contract of $72 million for the design of Canada’s WildFireSat constellation. The contract has been since assigned to Spire Global Canada following a corporate acquisition. WildFireSat will consist of seven microsatellites tailored to monitor active wildfires across Canada on a daily basis. This mission will provide essential data...

By Joseph D’Souza, Founder & CEO, ProNavigator — I have a 10-year-old son who likes to take pictures when he gets access to a phone. It’s cute to watch him taking pictures. It’s not so cute when he holds the shutter button down and I find 50 little near-identical images of his thumb. Okay, well, it IS cute, but it’s not so fun to clean up. Multiply that by 50 other times he decides to play photographer, and the duplication creates real work to maintain an organized photo album. And this is the topic at hand – the challenge of information retrieval when there are duplicates and drafts everywhere. Drowning in Docs Economic models have shown that in most cases where the price of something gets reduced, you will get more of that something. In this digital age, the cost to create a photo, email, document or almost anything else is essentially zero. Consequently, we are inundated with a multitude of these (free) things. Some might say that because storage is so inexpensive, there really isn’t much of a cost to the creation and storage of these duplicates. This might be true (though I may object to the latter assumption)...

Westland marks first acquisition of the year with P&C brokerage in Ontario Youngs Insurance Burlington West is now Westland Insurance: New name, same great company Surrey, BC (Feb. 25, 2025) – Westland Insurance, one of Canada’s fastest-growing insurance brokers, is pleased to announce that it acquired Youngs Insurance Brokers’ West Burlington operation. The acquisition was effective on February 21. Youngs – Burlington West is a P&C brokerage that has served the Greater Toronto Area for over 20 years. With deep roots in its community, Youngs – Burlington West is experienced in providing custom-tailored insurance solutions to its clients. With this acquisition, Westland deepens its roots in Ontario, a province that is strategically important as the brokerage continues expanding across Canada. “We’re thrilled to welcome Youngs’ West Burlington location to the Westland team,” says Jamie Lyons, Westland’s President & CEO. “As we continue our growth journey across Canada, we feel privileged to partner with a brokerage with such a long and rich insurance history. We’re looking forward to joining forces with their team to continue providing their community with best-in-class insurance solutions and service.” Westland continues to invest in and grow its business in Canada, both organically and through strategic acquisitions....