KENILWORTH – This year’s municipal insurance premium increase isn’t in the double digits as it was the previous two years.
According to Andrew Coburn of Coburn Insurance pressures contributing to an increase this year include liability, auto and property coverage.
Intact Public Entity submitted a $337,191 annual premium for 2024-25 coverage – a 7% increase over last year’s policy.
Comparatively, the premium was $316,506 in 2023 and $265,738 in 2022.
When it comes to increases in liability coverage, Coburn told Wellington North council at a Jan. 15 meeting, “society is continually becoming more litigious in its nature; people take less accountability for their actions and this results in much higher claims.”
Courts see municipalities as deep pockets to pay out claims, Coburn suggested, adding that “does not assist in the mitigation of liability lawsuits.”
Class actions, Coburn continued, are also increasing in frequency. He told council lawyers are eyeing municipalities as a target for payouts.
“Despite the municipality’s innocence, often times, even through we can defend and win the cost to defend … it’s a very large variable in the equations,” he said.
Notably, the cost of cyber-related insurance is down year over year.
It’s a “very difficult product,” Coburn said, adding policies were not underwritten properly, which leads to significant payouts and insurance providers dropping their coverage.
“Rates dramatically increase year over year; I think we had three consecutive years of 100 per cent (increases) which is catastrophic,” Coburn said.
But the township has since taken steps to mitigate its risk, including multi-factor authentication for logins, proper data storage (including off-site storage) and implementing emergency response plans.
“There actually was a decrease in this year’s terms, which is rare,” Coburn said.
Council voted to accept this year’s insurance premium of $337,191 from Intact Public Entity.
