Here’s what adjuster capacity is like for Canada’s wildfires

Firefighters and other first responders have been stretched thin while battling an unprecedented wildfire season in Canada, and such may be the case for claims adjuster capacity as well.

Across the industry, it’s a mixed bag of how quickly adjusters across Canada have been able to respond to the fires, which is expected to be declared a Cat, suggested one adjuster expert.

Across Canada, more than 43,000 square kilometres have burned so far this year — 15 times the average amount normally burned by the second week of June. This makes 2023 the second-worst year for wildfires on record, according to Canadian Press.

“There is an issue with respect to having enough of a labour force [in the general industry],” said Rannoch Harley, director of loss adjusting, Atlantic Canada, at Crawford & Company (Canada). “All of these intense weather conditions contribute to a problem here where people have really significant amounts of volume.

“From an industry perspective, I think we’re trying to correct this to get more people involved in the business of insurance and involved in independent adjusting. But it’s certainly been very busy and it seems like it’s going to continue to be.”

Crawford, Harley said, has been able to respond to the current claims volume out east. “We’re reasonably positioned here locally.”

But because many policyholders have yet to return home after evacuating, many adjusters have yet to get on-site to respond to claims.

A fire in Barrington Lake, N.S., has grown to 235 square kilometres since it first broke out. The blaze has forced more than 6,000 people from their homes and destroyed 60 houses and cottages, as well as 150 other structures, Canadian Press reported Sunday.

These residences and structures are deemed total constructive losses, Harley said, “and that doesn’t consider all the smoke damage claims, [additional living expense] claims, spoilage claims, and all these other areas of exposure.”

For Crawford, adjusters have just started responding to events as some evacuees return home.

“…We’re still assessing what the exposures and the demands are,” said Harley. “We’ve got many evacuees around Halifax Regional Municipality who have now returned home, things are being assessed.”

Thousands of residents remain displaced from their homes in other parts of the country.

Despite heavy predicted losses for the industry’ P&C insurers, the industry can rest easy knowing that estimated wildfire losses remain within the financial absorption capacity of most Canadian P&C insurers, according to new commentary by DBRS Morningstar.

In the short term, home insurance prices will remain under pressure due to the rising cost of natural catastrophes, a hard reinsurance market, and inflation, the rating agency predicted.

A worker crosses past damage from a wildfire in Hammond’s Plains, N.S., during a media tour, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/POOL, Tim Krochak