Canadian homeowners do not have the information they need to know if they should buy flood insurance leaving them exposed to significant financial risk.
A recent study from the University of Waterloo found flood mapping information in Canada was inadequate, incomplete, hard to locate and varied widely from province-to-province.
“With governments starting to step away from flood recovery assistance in favour of having homeowners purchase private insurance, it is clear homeowners lack access to information that would help them determine if they should add that protection to their policies,” said Daniel Henstra, a professor of political science at Waterloo’s Faculty of Arts. “Considering that current household debt levels would likely hinder a homeowner’s ability to pay the tens-of-thousands of dollars often associated with an average flood, Canada needs to make better information available to homeowners so they can determine if their homes are at risk.”
Read more at University of Waterloo