Insurance firms say they have been flooded in the past few years by insurance claims for water damage. Now they are lobbying municipalities to upgrade their sewer infrastructure to help reduce such damage.

"In many cases inadequate infrastructure…can't handle the kinds of water volumes we're seeing," said Dennis Prouse, director of federal government relations for the Insurance Bureau of Canada. "We want to continue to be there for Canadians, and in order to do that, we need to be able to have better predictability in terms of managing some of these events."

In late July, a heavy rainstorm caused sewage backups that flooded hundreds of homes in the Glen Cairn neighbourhood of Ottawa's Kanata area as well as nearby Stittsville. Just three years earlier, hundreds of homes in Ottawa's Kanata North and Orléans neighbourhoods were similarly damaged during two separate rainstorms.

Tips for homeowners

Dennis Prouse of the Insurance Bureau of Canada said there are a few things homeowners themselves can do to protect themselves from potential floods:

  • Install a sewer backup valve in the basement or backyard.
  • Slope their landscaping so water will run away from the home.
  • Use a rain barrel to prevent water accumulation around the home. The collected rain water can be used for gardening.

Prouse said that the increase in water damage insurance claims is partly due to the fact that more people now have finished basements.

"There's carpet and there's televisions, whereas previously your basement was a cement floor and a place to store boxes and the kids to play hide and seek."

According to the group, which represents both property and casualty insurers, water damage has displaced fires and break-ins as the top cause for homeowner claims. It now makes up half, up from about a quarter 15 or 20 years ago, said Prouse.

He blames a combination of factors for the increase, including climate change, which experts predicted would lead to heavier storms.

Municipal sewers are designed to accommodate all except the most extreme storms — ones that are only expected every 50 or 100 years — such.

"Those hundred year events and 50 year events are now happening with more and more frequency," Prouse said.

In addition, more and more people are living in cities, taxing the infrastructure as it ages.

Prouse said his group has been encouraging governments to prepare a climate change adaptation strategy that targets water and wastewater management and to upgrade their infrastructure. He added that governments have started to recognize the problem.

Extra-big sewers too costly: councillor

But Ottawa city councillor Gord Hunter said every extra inch added to the diameter of pipe adds to its cost, and building infrastructure capable of handling floods like the one in Kanata is not feasible.

"If you wanted to build so that no area of the city flooded on that basis, I don't think many people would be able to afford the houses," he said.

Hunter recommended instead making sure that houses are built properly when and if they are built in areas that have a high risk of flooding. For example, they could be built without basements.

Meanwhile, city staff were still investigating the Kanata flood, and may come up with an estimated cost for sewer upgrades.

Such repairs and upgrades are necessary, said Kanata resident Randy Hughes, who lost his entire basement, including a washroom and the walls, to the recent flood.

Hughes said he is frustrated by what he views as a lack of action.

"The city keeps putting in the paper that they've visited over a thousand homes," he said. "I've yet to see anybody knock on my door to come in and see what's happened."