Wawanesa Insurance Announces New Climate Resilience Centre

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, April 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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 Hartle
Manager, Corporate Communications & Media Relations
The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company
Phone: 1-844-946-6282
[email protected]

Glenn McGillivray
Managing Director
Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
Phone cell 416 277 5827
[email protected]