By Pepper Parr
July 11th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The insurance industry can at times be a bit of a damper on what people need in the way of liability insurance.
The City needs liability coverage – without it in place any lawsuits land on the city. And people are quick to sue the city because municipalities tend to settle rather than let a claim go to court.
A group of citizens took on the task of cleaning up some of the tombstones at the Union Cemetery (UEL) in the west end of the city. The site is the burial ground for many of the people who built the city.
Gates to the Union Burial Grounds on Plains Road yards from IKEA.
The event took place – at a cost, a considerable cost – they were required to put up $5 million of liability insurance. Our source has been involved in community work for decades but would not permit a name to be used – Burlington can be nasty with people who make critical remarks about how the city handles some issues. City hall staffers remember when people object to some of the decisions that are made.
The assembly of posters on the south side of Lakeshore Road north of Spencer Smith Park required liability insurance that is not cheap.
Tombstones that are being restored.
A number of months ago representatives from the hospitality sector had to fight very hard to get the city to reduce the size of the liability coverage if they were using city space for the patios they were opening that took up city owned space. The city wanted $5 million of liability coverage Restaurateurs explained that there had never been a claim anywhere near $2 million. It took some pushing on the part of the restaurateurs but they eventually were able to get the required liability coverage down to $2 million.
Why that figure is not made available to other groups is unfortunate. It puts a damper on what public groups want to do.
Odd that at least one member of Council doesn’t take this on and find a way to establish a liability insurance level that is fair to both the city and the people who have to pay the insurance fees.
You wonder, don’t you, why a Council member doesn’t do something for the people who elected them.
Related news story:
The project that required $5 million in liability insurance
As a former risk management and risk transfer professional advisor, who was always seeking to find solutions to help those who found it difficult to obtain needed liability insurance, it surprises me that the City’s insurance broker, advisor has not provided a solution to the City for the liability insurance quandary facing groups using City property.
I believe it would be entirely possible for the City’s insurance broker/advisor to set up with an insurance company a facility where these groups can access the required liability insurance.
The City would require the group to purchase specific event liability insurance through the facility.
The chosen insurance company would underwrite and quote each event on a case by case basis.
The insurance company would gain a good spread of risk by being the mandated insurer.
The City would be comforted in the knowledge that all event groups have insurance that meets the City’s requirements.
There would be no cost to the City.
Please note often groups say they cannot get insurance when in fact it’s they do not like the cost of the insurance. That issue will always be present.
I say earlier in this message that it surprises me the City’s insurance broker advisor has not offered a solution to the problem. In all truth though, I’m not really surprised, knowing the identity of the broker advisor and also the fact that the broker advisor failed to ensure adequate insurance coverage was in place to protect the City against the $500,000 fraud it suffered a few years ago.