Canada’s insurance lobby says Albertans are less likely to be worried about weather trends linked to climate change than others in the country, despite a recent six-fold increase in insured damages from severe storms, fires and flooding.

But as property and casualty carriers respond by hiking premiums up to 25 per cent this year, the Insurance Bureau of Canada says the province and its municipalities need to get serious about mitigating losses in Alberta that have mounted to an average of $670 million annually in the past four years compared to an average of $100 million annually in the previous 15 years.

“Alberta has become the place where bad weather pays a visit more often,” said Don Forgeron, IBC’s president and chief executive.

“We could simply raise premiums, walk away and be quiet, but we think there is another way.”

Polling done this month for IBC found 91 per cent of Canadians have noticed a change in weather patterns over the past decade, but only 80 per cent of Albertans had spotted a trend.

The numbers also showed residents of the province were less likely than others in the country to be concerned about the changes that have made Albertans the worst hit by natural catastrophes.

According to the poll, residents were also more likely than other Canadians to make the mistake of naming Ontario instead of their home province as the largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions that have been linked to climate change.

Forgeron, who is scheduled to speak to Calgary’s Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, said he isn’t coming to the city to preach to oil executives about limiting the cause of this looming problem.

But he does believe governments, business and consumers need to adapt or risk seeing their losses from severe weather continue to rise.

“An Alberta farmer who just had his barn damaged by yet another hailstorm probably doesn’t care if the climate graph is shaped like a hockey stick or not.” Forgeron said.

“Neither are we, but we are interested in the impact on our customers and members.”

A recent study prepared for IBC by the Institute for Catastrophic Loss and Reduction predicts Alberta will see a 10 per cent increase in severe weather events by 2050 as average annual temperatures in the province rise up to four degrees Celsius as a result of global warming.

The report says the result will be drought conditions and shortages of potable water in fast-growing cities like Calgary.

Combined with a 20 per cent increase in lightning frequency, the dry conditions will increase the likelihood of wildfires similar to the Slave Lake disaster two years ago.

Rainstorms, when they come, will be more intense and could cause flash-flooding in low-lying areas and overwhelm existing storm sewer systems.

John Pomeroy, the Canada research chair in Water Resources and Climate Change at the University of Saskatchewan, has studied rainfall records on the Prairies for the past century and found a marked increase in the number of multi-day rain events during the summer that can overwhelm streams and rivers.