Are Nunavut hamlets ‘uninsurable’?

Municipalities in Nunavut received $78 million dollars from insurance companies between 2018 and 2025, convincing Canadian companies to declare communities in the territory “uninsurable,” according to Peter Boucher, principal attorney for the Nunavut Association of Municipalities Insurance Exchange.

During that period, hamlets received more than 10 times as much from insurance companies as they paid in premiums, Boucher explained to a crowd of municipal officials at the Baffin Mayor’s forum on March 11.

Hamlet buildings, water tanks, trucks, and any other property a community government insures are often in poor condition and likely to result in an insurance claim, he said.

In May 2025, hamlets were close to being left without insurance before the Government of Nunavut agreed to step in, just before the non-profit Nunavut Association of Municipalities Insurance Exchange was ready to end its operations.

“The board was ready to wind up your insurance program, potentially exposing all of you to going to buy insurance for yourselves. And I can tell you right now, most communities are uninsurable,” Boucher said.

Instead, a new system for insuring hamlet-owned property and assets is being enacted this year.

UK insurance [market] Lloyd’s of London is now covering hamlet-owned property, but at a much higher cost to Nunavummiut taxpayers.

The GN is providing $11.25 million to help cover the expenses, up from $850,000 in past years, according to Boucher.

But hamlets could still see their insurance premiums spike if their assets aren’t up code.

“Insurance is only a means of spreading payments over time. It’s not a new pool of money. So we’ve explained to the Government of Nunavut that the price that we pass on to you is not dictated by us. It’s dictated by our losses, our values and outside factors,” Boucher said.

Building inspectors will be travelling to each community to assess the condition of hamlet building roofs, water boiler storage and vehicle garages. Eight municipalities will be inspected per year.

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Communities with poor infrastructure will pay more, and communities in good shape will pay less.

“If Arctic Bay is fully code compliant, we will credit them. And if another community isn’t compliant at all, then they will get a debt. They’ll get an additional charge,” Boucher said. “If you have a 35 per cent increase in your asset value, you can expect a 30 per cent increase in your insurance cost next year before we even talk.”