Latest posts three columns

Why your insurance has become more expensive? As many of you know from first-hand experience, your insurance became more expensive recently. You are not alone! Without delving too deeply into why I summarize here some of the contributing factors for both insurers and insureds: Competition between insurers for marketplace share between 2005 and 2017 was...

Our Group Benefits specialist Tara Klein wrote this excellent article that was recently published in the Ontario Industrial Roofing Contractors Association (OIRCA)’s latest publication of the Ontario Roofing News! Here are the highlights from the article:  OHIP + Launched in January of 2018 by Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government, OHIP + provided prescription drugs to Ontario...

  A Halloween edition of “Simon Says” features a construction risk article on: Indemnification Agreements. I’ve seen some scary indemnification agreements in my career. Some butchered from the parts of many resulting in abhorrent Frankencontracts! Contractors should consider contractual risks carefully before bidding or entering any contractual agreement. If you are awarded a contract but...

You DON’T want to land on the front page of the newspaper because you’ve been hacked! Does your company have a website?  Do you have a presence on Twitter, LinkedIN, and Facebook?  If so, you may be susceptible to a cyber-attack. Consider that almost half of all ‘hacking’ attacks target small to medium size companies. ...

Surety bonds are an important part of the construction industry and are quite often a core requirement for contractors. Bonds, and specifically Contract Surety Bonds, differ greatly from insurance in that they are three party agreements between the contractor (the ‘Principal’), the project owner to whom you are obligated to perform the work (the ‘Obligee’),...

A summary of a speech delivered by Simon Fenn at the CRCA 2015 AGM This article reviews historical issues affecting the roofing industry; roofing liability claims; insurable and uninsurable risk in roofing specifically and introduces an explanation of the risk management process, on the opinion that the ICI roofing industry must at all times embrace...

  We all refer to them as drones so we can depend on the authorities to give them different names just to confuse us all.  Transport Canada has named them Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) which at least is consistent with other international bodies.  (In this paper for context I’ll flip from drone to UAV but...

In 2000 Reliance Insurance Company was the insurer behind the CRCA Insurance programme.  In June 2000 Reliance Insurance Company stopped writing insurance business and in October 2001 went into liquidation.  The Insurance Journal headlines read: Reliance Insurance Company 1817 – 2001 R.I.P. Such has been the demise of many insurers but this in particular was...

The Infrastructure Health & Safety Association (IHSA) has three courses available to become IHSA Training Providers, these are: School Bus Driver Improvement Course Defensive Driving Working from Height IHSA Training Provider Details and Agreement Details of how to apply for Trainer training are here: www.ihsa.ca/training_provider/index.cfm One pre-requisite of the Training Provider courses is completion of the...