With 2024 being the single-most expensive year on record in terms of insurance payouts in Canada, following a swath of devastating weather-related disasters, insurers are warning that home insurance rates in 2025 are likely to increase significantly. The Insurance Bureau of Canada says insurers paid out $8.55 billion in 2024, more than $2 billion more than 2016, the next worst year on record. It came after hundreds of homes were obliterated by a wildfire in Jasper, Alta., and parts of the Greater Toronto Area were underwater from floods in what was a year of climate-driven disasters in Canada. B.C. saw its fourth-worst wildfire season by total area burned last year, as well as a series of storms towards the end of the year that caused multiple deaths from flooding and landslides.

Related content in The Globe & Mail: How the California wildfires could affect insurance rates in Canada [requires a subscription]