Climate change, extreme weather leading to soaring home insurance rates in Ontario: study

Home insurance costs in Ontario are climbing at an “alarming” rate, according to a study done by a Canadian Insurtech company, with wildfire-ravaged towns in northern Ontario (Thunder Bay and North Bay) and flood-prone towns like Ajax and Pembroke among the communities seeing the biggest jumps.

Thunder Bay, already with some of the highest insurance costs in the province, saw their rates jump 26.39 per cent to $2,190 per month. North Bay had the second biggest increase, with their insurance rates rising 22.64 per cent from $1,351 per month to $1,657.

Pembroke ($1,499 to $1,831 – up 22.17 per cent) and Ajax, with its monthly rates soaring 22.11 per cent to $1,248, rounded out the  top four.

Insurtech company MyChoice conducted an in-depth analysis of year-over-year home insurance rate changes across Ontario municipalities, examining thousands of real quotes generated between January and September 2025 and comparing them to the same period in 2024.

(For consistency, the study focused on a standard homeowner profile: a 35-year-old  homeowner with a clean claims history, living in a 3-4 bedroom detached or semi-detached home with a replacement value of $1 million. This homeowner has a $1,000 deductible, $1 million liability coverage and common safety features like monitored fire/burglar alarms and a fire extinguisher – reflecting common insurance discounts.)

The study found that the average home insurance premium in Ontario jumped by about 7.15 per cent this year over 2024 rates – an increase far above the general inflation rate of 2.3 per cent.

The data also showed that Ontario premiums have increased 84 per cent in the past decade, “vastly outpacing” the 28 per cent growth in general consumer prices over the same period.

Climate change and extreme weather has been a factor into the steep hikes, with insured losses from extreme weather hitting a record $8.5 billion in 2024, a Canadian record. Such frequent, severe disasters, the company noted in the  report, are driving up home insurance claims and expenses across the country, forcing insurers to raise premiums to keep pace with the heightened risk.

Other cities seeing big insurance increases in Ontario include Huntsville (up 19.72 per cent), Markham (up 18 per cent), Brockville (up 16.77 per cent), Burlington (up 15.97 per cent), Ottawa (up 14.3 per cent) and Belleville (up 14.26 per cent).

A few Ontario communities bucked the trend managed to escape hefty rate hikes, with  Woodstock (−5.86 per cent), Waterloo (−5.11 per cent), Orangeville (−3.87 per cent), Niagara Falls (−2.67 per cent) and Barrie (−2.08 per cent) all seeing modest relief in average rates compared to 2024.

Kitchener had the lowest insurance rates of the nearly 50  communities included  in the analysis, with rates rising just $7 to $998 per month.