Unveiling Critical Gaps in Canada’s Disaster Cost Reporting: Insights from a Groundbreaking Lancet Study

A newly published study in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas has brought to light significant deficiencies in how Canada tracks the economic impacts of disasters, particularly those driven by extreme weather events. Led by researchers affiliated with the University of Toronto and Harvard Medical School, the analysis reveals that while disaster costs are escalating amid climate change, more than half of recorded events lack any financial data. This revelation, drawn from the Canadian Disaster Database spanning 1990 to 2020, underscores the urgent need for improved data practices to bolster national preparedness and equity in resilience efforts.

At the heart of this research is a call for Canadian universities and policymakers to prioritize robust data collection frameworks. As extreme weather becomes more frequent and severe, academic institutions like the University of Toronto are positioning themselves at the forefront of interdisciplinary studies that bridge public health, emergency medicine, and environmental science.

Decoding the Canadian Disaster Database: The Foundation of the Research

The Canadian Disaster Database (CDD), maintained by Public Safety Canada, serves as the primary repository for federally declared disasters since 1900. This comprehensive tool catalogs events based on criteria such as evacuations exceeding set thresholds, declarations of emergency, and federal assistance requests. The study meticulously extracted data on 636 events from 1990 to 2020, categorizing them into meteorological (402 events like floods and storms), wildfires (90), geological (16), biological (15), and chemical, radiological, nuclear, or explosive (CRNE, 113) incidents.

Costs captured in the CDD represent direct economic losses, including government expenditures, insurance payouts, and donations, adjusted to 2020 Canadian dollars using Statistics Canada’s Consumer Price Index. Notably absent are indirect costs such as lost productivity, health system disruptions, or long-term environmental remediation—highlighting another layer of underestimation in Canada’s disaster accounting.

Researchers employed ordinary least squares regression on log-transformed costs to discern trends, while scenario-based bounding illustrated the scale of under-reporting. This rigorous methodology, supported by Python-based analysis, exemplifies the high-caliber quantitative research emerging from Canadian higher education institutions.

Rising Costs Amid Data Deficiencies: Key Statistical Revelations

The study quantifies a stark reality: of the 636 disasters, only 278 (44%) reported costs, totaling CAD $38.3 billion in 2020 values. Meteorological events dominated, with a median cost of $20.1 million and mean of $130.2 million per event, while wildfires, though fewer, averaged $260.2 million due to outlier mega-fires.

Inflation-adjusted annual increases were alarming: 4.5% for meteorological disasters and a staggering 25.6% for wildfires. Per capita trends showed wildfires escalating from negligible in the 1990s to $1.51 million per 100,000 people in the 2010s. Bounding scenarios suggest true costs could range from $38.5 billion (best-case, assuming $0.5M per unreported event) to $74.1 billion (upper-bound, $100M per event), implying up to $36 billion in hidden economic burdens.

• Meteorological events: 60% reported, but completeness dipped mid-2000s.
• Wildfires: Only 28% reported, masking rapid escalation.
• Cost bands: 20% of reported events exceeded $100 million, skewing totals.

These figures align with recent real-world data, where 2025 insured losses hit $2.4 billion—the ninth-costliest year on record—driven by wildfires, ice storms, and floods.

Equity Concerns: Under-Reporting in Rural and Indigenous Communities

A particularly troubling finding is the disparity in reporting: disasters affecting rural and Indigenous communities had costs reported in only 44% of cases, compared to 68.4% for urban/metro areas. Rural/Indigenous events were nearly twice as likely to lack estimates, potentially due to administrative hurdles, limited resources, and historical under-prioritization.

This invisibility perpetuates inequities, as funding and recovery efforts favor better-documented urban incidents. Indigenous communities, already facing climate vulnerabilities from wildfires and floods, risk further marginalization without equity-sensitive data protocols.

Canadian universities, with strong Indigenous research partnerships like those at the University of Toronto and UBC, are uniquely positioned to address this through community-led studies and data sovereignty initiatives.

Photo by Hazwan Kosni on Unsplash

Recent Extreme Weather Events: Case Studies Amplifying the Gaps

The study’s 1990-2020 scope precedes recent catastrophes, yet patterns persist. The 2021 British Columbia floods caused over $5 billion in damages, while 2023 wildfires scorched 18.5 million hectares, evacuating 200,000 and costing billions in suppression alone. In 2025, societal losses reached $3.4 billion, with uninsured damages adding $1 billion to insured $2.4 billion.

Case in point: the 2021 Lytton wildfire obliterated the town, yet comprehensive cost data lagged. Similarly, atmospheric rivers in 2024-2025 strained Prairies and Atlantic provinces. These events highlight how incomplete reporting hampers insurance models and federal aid allocation.

Academic centers like the Canadian Climate Institute, collaborating with universities, estimate cumulative climate damages could exceed $35 billion annually by mid-century without adaptation.

Spotlight on Academic Leadership: University of Toronto’s Role

Lead author Dr. Mazen El-Baba, a PGY5 Emergency Medicine resident at the University of Toronto, initiated this work during his Disaster Medicine Fellowship at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Co-author Dr. Andrew J. Hall from U of T’s Division of Emergency Medicine emphasizes the public health imperative.

“Improving disaster cost reporting is not just about better data; it is about better decisions for communities, health systems, and governments.” — Dr. Mazen El-Baba

U of T’s interdisciplinary approach exemplifies how Canadian higher education fosters expertise in disaster resilience, training future leaders through programs in emergency medicine, environmental science, and data analytics.

Broader Contributions from Canadian Universities to Climate and Disaster Research

Beyond U of T, institutions like McGill University and the University of British Columbia lead in climate modeling and vulnerability assessments. McGill’s climate epidemiology research quantifies health costs from heatwaves, while UBC’s wildfire studies integrate Indigenous knowledge.

The Canadian Climate Institute, partnering with academics, projects escalating costs from floods ($2.9 billion annually) and wildfires. Universities are pivotal in filling CDD gaps via advanced analytics, AI-driven forecasting, and longitudinal studies.

• Engineers Canada: Flood risk modeling costing billions.
• Fraser Institute: Critiques on weather trend data.
• Lancet Countdown: Annual health-climate reports highlighting Canada’s vulnerabilities.

Policy Implications and Recommendations for Enhanced Reporting

The study advocates national standards for cost estimation, including indirect impacts and sub-components. Federal-provincial coordination, akin to health surveillance systems, could modernize the CDD.Explore the Canadian Disaster Database to understand current limitations.

Equity demands Indigenous-led reporting and rural-focused metrics. Universities can drive this through grant-funded consortia, training data specialists, and policy advising.

Photo by Miltiadis Fragkidis on Unsplash

Future Research Directions and Opportunities in Higher Education

Post-2020 analyses are crucial given intensified events. Emerging areas include AI for real-time costing, socio-economic modeling, and international comparisons. Canadian universities offer fertile ground for PhD/postdoc roles in these fields, fostering careers in resilient infrastructure and climate adaptation.

Challenges persist: funding gaps for precarious academic staff in climate research, yet opportunities abound via NSERC grants and tri-council programs.

Toward Resilient Futures: The Academic Imperative

As Canada grapples with escalating extreme weather, the Lancet study illuminates not just data voids but pathways to action. Higher education must champion standardized reporting, equity integration, and innovative research to safeguard communities. By amplifying voices from U of T and beyond, academia can transform incomplete data into comprehensive strategies for a climate-resilient nation.