Alberta rejects extension for Fort McMurray claims

The Alberta government Wednesday turned down a request from the Fort McMurray area’s mayor for a one-year extension to residents with outstanding insurance claims from the 2016 wildfire.

May 3 will mark the second anniversary of the most expensive insured loss in Canadian history, a fire that led to about 50,000 claims. Don Scott, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, wrote a letter in March urging the province to extend the two-year deadline to dispute claims due to their number and complexity.

Andrew Hanson, a spokesman for Alberta Treasury Board and Finance Department, said Wednesday the province can’t compel insurance companies to offer an extension.

“The government does not have the authority to provide a blanket extension for time limits on insurance coverage,” Mr. Hanon said. “So what the government has done is work with the industry to ensure people are aware the two-year deadline is coming up.”

Mayor Ross was crestfallen at the news.

“Of course I am disappointed,” he said. “By not giving an extension, it obviously puts our residents in greater difficulty.”

Alberta insurance superintendent Nilam Jetha issued a notice to companies in late March urging them to grant latitude to delinquent claimants.

“A catastrophic event like the 2016 wildfire can result in a large number of serious losses that, because of the catastrophic circumstances, take longer to resolve,” the notice said.

“In such cases, I expect that insurance companies will have in place a process to review requests for extensions of the statutory limitation on a case-by-case basis.”

Insurers have been doing just that, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

“We began talking with insurers months ago, and obviously they were already well aware of this limitation and that it was coming,” IBC western vp Bill Adams told Thompson’s late last month.

“All of them that we spoke with had in place a plan to deal with it.”

Mr. Adams said roughly 85% of Fort Mac claims were closed within a year, and since then “a significant number more” have been closed.

“A small, small minority aren’t progressing. And in those instances the insurers are not likely to grant the extension — they want to get this closed.”