Canadian flood risk-sharing models in the face of climate change

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Flooding is the most common and costly natural hazard in Canada. Because of climate change and continued urbanization in high-risk flood areas, there is a growing threat to the safety of Canadian communities. As a result, nearly one-in-ten households in Canada is at risk of flooding. To increase Canada's resilience to flooding and climate change, researchers from the Université du Québec à Montréal, Université Laval and the University of Waterloo have partnered with Public Safety Canada and the Insurance Bureau of Canada to develop science-based viable solutions for financial risk management of flood risk in Canada and to accelerate the implementation of these solutions in the country.Deeply rooted in actuarial and climate sciences, we will create innovative methodologies to determine (1) how the federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) governments as well as municipalities and the insurance industry should contribute to share financial losses from flooding in the current Canadian context (legislative, environmental, etc.); (2) how much we should expect to pay for flooding in the future accounting for climate change; and, (3) how climate change should shape financial risk-sharing and risk management strategies to assure a viable, stable and ideally self-financing system in Canada. Through the work of the interdisciplinary Task Force on Flood Insurance and Relocation led by Public Safety Canada, this research project will in turn form the basis of considered options by FPT governments to increase Canada's resilience to flooding and climate change.While applying their technical skills in actuarial science, the research trainees will gain important insights about (physical) flood processes, adaptation to climate change and flood insurance. As climate change is gradually being factored in by insurance regulators and public policies, research trainees and staff will be better positioned to become international leaders in the public/private sectors such as research actuaries, catastrophe risk modellers, climate data scientists, flood risk managers or governance and policy experts.