Wawanesa Insurance Announces New Climate Resilience Centre
April 17 2024 - 12:00PM
Wawanesa Insurance is pleased to announce a new partnership with
the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), a national
not-for-profit focused on helping Canadian property owners,
businesses and communities prepare for and adapt to the impacts of
severe weather events that are being exacerbated by a warming
climate.
The partnership involves opening a new ICLR Climate Resilience
Centre in downtown Winnipeg in the months ahead. With this
partnership agreement, Wawanesa will sponsor the ICLR by providing
office space and operating funds to open a new centre on the main
floor of Wawanesa’s former Canadian headquarters at 191 Broadway
Avenue.
“Through this partnership, Wawanesa will play a useful role in
helping Canadians adapt to the increasing effects and risks of
climate change,” said Graham Haigh, Wawanesa’s SVP & Chief
Operations Officer, West. “ICLR is a leader in providing property
owners, businesses, insurers, governments and academic institutions
with high-quality information on reducing the risk of extreme
weather on Canadian homes, businesses and communities. With this
new Climate Resilience Centre in Winnipeg, which will serve all of
Canada, ICLR will reach even more stakeholders and help us all
better prepare for the extreme weather that is here now and which
will become more extreme in the years ahead.”
“ICLR is thrilled to partner with Wawanesa Insurance on this
groundbreaking initiative. Talking to people and showing them a
picture or telling them about resilience to severe weather can be
too abstract and almost meaningless. Actually showing them how
resilience features work, allowing people to push a button or turn
a dial, and fostering a dialogue brings life to the science of
resilience and helps to further understanding of what needs to be
done to protect Canadians against severe weather,” says Paul
Kovacs, Executive Director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss
Reduction.
About the new ICLR Climate Resilience
Centre
The Centre will serve as a destination for various stakeholders,
such as insurers, reinsurers, brokers, home builders, building code
officials and others to come together and learn about best
practices and the issues involved in becoming more climate
resilient. This includes:
- Developing programming with national reach, distributing
information to various stakeholders that is relevant to climate
risks across the country.
- Free attendance, allowing groups to book the premises for
education sessions, host events and to collaborate in person.
- Multimedia and other hands-on displays highlighting practical
strategies for property loss mitigation developed by ICLR and
sponsored by Wawanesa. The displays will be able to travel to
communities for education events to address hazards such as
basement flooding/sewer backup, wildfire, overland flooding,
extreme wind, and hail.
- A dedicated space sponsored by Wawanesa that will encourage
attendees to come together to share knowledge and learn.
About The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance
Company The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company,
founded in 1896, is one of Canada’s largest mutual insurers, with
over $3.5 billion in annual revenue and assets of $10 billion.
Wawanesa Mutual, with its National Headquarters in Winnipeg, is the
parent company of Wawanesa Life, which provides life insurance
products and services throughout Canada, and Western Financial
Group, which distributes personal and business insurance across
Canada. Wawanesa proudly serves more than 1.7 million members in
Canada. The company actively gives back to organizations that
strengthen communities, donating more than $3.5 million annually to
charitable organizations, including over $2 million annually in
support of people on the front lines of climate change. Learn more
at wawanesa.com
About The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
(ICLR)Canada’s leading disaster research institute, the
Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), was established
by the insurance industry in 1997 as an independent, not-for-profit
research and outreach institute to champion disaster resilience in
Canada. ICLR is an international centre of excellence affiliated
with Western University. The Institute develops and champions
evidence-based disaster safety solutions that can be implemented by
homeowners, businesses and governments to enhance their disaster
resilience. Visit www.iclr.org for more information.
For more information:
Brad HartleManager, Corporate Communications & Media
RelationsThe Wawanesa Mutual Insurance CompanyPhone:
1-844-946-6282media@wawanesa.com
Glenn McGillivrayManaging Director Institute for Catastrophic
Loss ReductionPhone cell 416 277 5827 gmcgillivray@iclr.org