Day 1 - January 31

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Registration Opens

1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Canadian Disaster Mitigation Interactive Workshop Part 1

The development of an Emergency Management Strategy for Canada requires collaboration from all levels of government, business, non-government organizations, and academia. The workshop will be conducted where invited stakeholders provide their perspectives. Subsequently, valuable input will be gathered from participants of the C4 Conference. The outcome of the workshop would be two-fold:

  • Participants would gain a better understanding of the state of disaster prevention, mitigation, and risk reduction in Canada, as shared by a panel of knowledgeable speakers, and through sharing ideas at smaller breakout tables. In addition to gaining knowledge, they would also be able to share their input, thoughts, and ideas to inform policy decisions made by Public Safety Canada.
  • Public Safety Canada will be able to use the outcome of this workshop to inform policy decisions, helping to advance an Emergency Management Strategy for Canada, and use the wealth of knowledge collected by the over 250+ attendees of C4 2018. Additionally, a summary of outcomes from the discussions will also help inform planning and strategy decisions by other stakeholders in the industry, NGO’s and other levels of government. Furthermore, the workshop will enable collaborative opportunities between stakeholders.
Jim Abraham

Moderator
Jim Abraham

Past President and Fellow
CMOS

Speaker
Matthew Godsoe
Director of the Resilience and Economics Integration Division
Public Safety Canada

Speaker
David Diabo
Senior Special Advisor Emergency Management, Housing, Infrastructure & Emergency Services
Assembly of First Nations

Alex Kaplan

Speaker
Alex Kaplan
Head, North America and SVP, Global Partnerships
Swiss Re

Eric Tousignant

Speaker
Eric Tousignant
Senior Water Resources Engineer
City of Ottawa

Alana Lavoie

Speaker
Alana Lavoie
Manager, Policy and Research
Federation of Canadian Municipalities

2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Networking Break

Session Sponsor

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Canadian Disaster Mitigation Interactive Workshop Part 2

5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Opening Cocktail Reception

Sponsored by

Day 2 - February 1

7:45 am
Registration opens

7:45 am
Breakfast

8:45 am
Welcome & Acknowledgements and Intro Address

9:00 am
2017 CATs in Review

9:15 am
Flood Risk Management All Over the Map: Bringing Some Cohesion

The severe weather consequences of climate change affect every Canadian and every level of government. Some focus on mitigation; others on adaptation. Bringing municipal and insurance leaders together, this panel will explore the challenges facing municipalities in planning and funding large scale infrastructure investments, and how the insurance industry could respond.

Moderator
David McGown

SVP, Strategic Initiatives,
IBC

Alain Thibault

Speaker
Alain Thibault
Chairman and President & CEO
CADRI

Bonnie Crombie

Speaker
Bonnie Crombie
Mayor
City of Mississauga

Rosa Galvez

Speaker
Rosa Galvez
Canadian Senator and Professor Civil and Water Eng. Dept.
Laval University

Networking Break

Sponsor by

10:45 am
Public Communication in Times of Crisis

The impacts of natural disasters are personal, and often overwhelming to homeowners and communities. These impacts can be lessened by actions taken before, during, and after an event. We cannot assume that providing information alone will automatically result in personal preparedness. So how can we effectively communicate risk to drive action? Join our panel of communicators to discuss how to engage and motivate communities to prepare, react, and recover from extreme weather events.

Shawna Peddle

Moderator
Shawna Peddle

Managing Director
Partners for Action

Speaker
Janice Babineau
Community Manager
Canadian Red Cross

Speaker
Jeff Rohrer
Director of Communications and Events
IBC

Speaker
Jennifer Spinney
PhD Candidate
University of Western Ontario

Speaker
Ryan Baker
Director of Public Affairs and Lead Emergency Communications Coordinator
Public Safety Canada

11:45 am
Keynote Address
Lunch and Presentation: Addressing the Climate Change Challenge: What Does It Mean for the Insurance Industry, As Underwriters and Institutional Investors?

Keynote Speaker
Maryam Golnaraghi

Director, Climate Change & Emerging Environmental Topics
Geneva Association

Sponsor by

1:15 pm
Democratizing and Improving CAT and Hazard Models

As a prerequisite to adapting to climate change, extreme weather events (e.g. flood, drought, heat, hail, wind, etc.) and over-taxed and aging infrastructure, CAT and Hazard models must be updated and made broadly available. In the absence of contemporized models, adaptation will be based on a combination of outdated profiles and guesswork, neither option of which will lead to a well-functioning end state. Accordingly, time is not a luxury regarding the need for improved and available CAT and Hazard models, as will be profiled in the session.

Blair Feltmate

Moderator
Blair Feltmate

Head, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation
University of Waterloo

Speaker
Elliott Cappell
Chief Resilience Officer
City of Toronto

Speaker
Dickie Whitaker
Chief Executive
Oasis Loss Modelling Framework

2:15 pm
Networking Break

Sponsored by

2:45 pm
Lessons Learned from Emergency Management Plans

This session will explore the role of local, provincial, and federal officials in disaster management in Canada. We will discuss actions taken to assess and understand hazards, clarify roles and responsibilities for stakeholders, invest in risk reduction, and plans to ‘build back better’ after a disaster.

Speaker
Matthew Godsoe
Director of the Resilience and Economics Integration Division
Public Safety Canada

Speaker
Mike LeBlanc
Regional Emergency Management Coordinator
New Brunswick EMO

Speaker
Louise Bradette
Chief Resilience Officer
City of Montréal

3:45 pm
Building Back Better

When a natural disaster strikes a community, it tests the resiliency of the system. Last year we saw catastrophic flooding right in our backyards, which led to hundreds of millions in insured and economic losses. To prepare for the changing climate and future events, we need to be ready ahead of time to build back better in order to mitigate risks and impacts in the longer term.

Heather Auld

Moderator
Heather Auld

Principal Climate Scientist
Risk Sciences International

Marianne Armstrong

Speaker
Marianne Armstrong
Initiative Leader - Climate Resilient Built Environment Initiative
National Research Council Canada

Glenn McGillivray

Speaker
Glenn McGillivray
Managing Director
Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction

Speaker
Emily Stock
Insurance Litiagion Lawyer
Monaghan Reain Lui Taylor LLP

4:45 pm
Student Delegate Presentations

6:30 pm
Cocktail Reception

7:30 pm
Dinner

Sponsored by

Day 3 - February 2

8:00 am
Breakfast

9:00 am
Coping with Canada's Hottest Peril - Wildfire

The 2016 and 2017 wildfire seasons have pushed Canada’s insurers, emergency managers and claims adjusters to the extreme when dealing with the sheer number and extent of new challenges. This session attempts to delve into lessons learned over the last two years, with a focus on saving lives and property. This panel will include points of view from three Canadian professionals intimately involved with the recent wildfire activity:

1. Kyle Winston (President at CRU Group Inc.) – providing a catastrophe claims adjuster viewpoint;
2. Steven Gwynne (Sr. Research Officer at the National Research Council Canada) – giving a perspective on the growing science of wildfire prediction and evacuation modeling;
3. Patrick Barbeau (Senior Vice President, Claims at Intact Insurance) – offering an insurer’s experience on how dealing with wildfires is changing rapidly.

Paul Cutbush

Moderator
Paul Cutbush

Senior Vice President, Catastrophe Management
Aon Reinsurance Solutions

Speaker
Patrick Barbeau
Senior Vice President, Claims
Intact Insurance

Speaker
Steve Gwynne
Senior Research Officer
National Research Council

Kyle Winston

Speaker
Kyle Winston
Chair
CRU GROUP

10:00 am
Networking Break

Sponsored by

10:30 am
Ensuring the Viability of the Alberta Property Insurance Market

Hail, Flood, Fire, what is next for Alberta? How can we ensure there are viable and affordable insurance products in Alberta in light of recent catastrophic events? How are government, insurance companies and reinsurance companies adapting to these catastrophic events and what can be done to curb the trend?

Moderator
Sean Russell

Managing Director
Guy Carpenter

Speaker
Joseph El-Sayegh
President and CEO
SCOR Canada Reinsurance

Speaker
Alan Frith
Senior Manager, Consulting and Client Services
AIR Worldwide

Speaker
Brad Geddes
Executive Director, Recovery Branch
Alberta Emergency Management Agency

Speaker
Keith Hartry
Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company

11:30 am
East vs. West - Understanding the Macro-Economic Impacts of Earthquakes

Montreal and the Next Big Quake; when Canadians think of earthquake risk, they invariably think of Canada’s west coast. However, an equally devastating scenario is plausible in the St Lawrence corridor. Join seismic experts and economists to learn about the risk to Quebec’s largest city, the implications and what is being done to prepare.

Craig Stewart

Moderator
Craig Stewart

Vice President, Federal Affairs
Insurance Bureau of Canada

Speaker
Pedro Antunes
Deputy Chief Economist
The Conference Board of Canada

Speaker
Balz Grollimund
Head Treaty Underwriting, Canada & English Caribbean
Swiss Re

Speaker
Justin Moresco
Manager, Model Product Management
RMS

12:30 pm
Networking Lunch

2:15 pm
Conference Wrap Up