Canada continues to experience its worst wildfire season on record, with fires engulfing areas of all 13 provinces and territories. Even as the traditional wildfire season draws to a close for most parts of the country, it is possible that ongoing warm and dry weather may contribute to blazes remaining active into winter. With this situation in mind, it is crucial for Canadian businesses to consider how they can improve their business resilience and limit wildfire-associated disruptions.
In our third episode of When faced with fire, a three part podcast series where we explore Canada’s wildfire risk, Ritch Seeley, a managing director within Marsh Advisory Canada, chats with George Fan, who is their lead consultant for natural catastrophe and climate risks. They are joined by Kevin Gordon, a senior vice president for Marsh Advisory Canada, specializing in business continuity management, and Matt Zuccato, national practice leader for Alternative Risk Solutions Canada.
They discuss ways to improve your business resilience through site preparedness and response, business continuity, and supply chain management. They also shed light on how alternative insurance solutions may be used to support your current insurance program.
Vice President, Senior Risk Consultant, Marsh Advisory
George Fan is a professional engineer and a senior risk consultant for Marsh Advisory Canada, where he is the lead consultant for natural catastrophe and climate risks. He has over eight years of experience in property loss prevention and flood resilience. To gain further expertise on these topics, George is currently pursuing a master’s degree in climate risk in his spare time.
C.E.T. Managing Director, Consulting Solutions, Marsh Advisory
Ritch is Marsh Advisory Canada’s western region practice leader, where he assists clients in developing customized risk management frameworks that facilitate the identification, assessment, and prioritization of critical property and operational risks. He has over 25 years of risk consulting experience, and he has written thought leadership papers and presented risk management workshops on a wide range of risk topics such as principles of risk management, risk identification techniques, managing contractors, and understanding fire suppression systems.
Senior Vice President, Global Placement Leader
Mirsada is Marsh’s Vancouver placement leader, and has over 18 years of insurance industry experience. She is accountable for leading a team of experienced brokers operating across different segments, industries and product lines. Utilizing her risk expertise, global portfolio experience, and deep understanding of industry challenges, she drives the development and implementation of placement strategies to provide solutions that meet diverse and complex client needs.
Senior Vice President, Business Continuity Management, Marsh Advisory
Kevin Gordon is a senior vice president with Marsh Advisory, specializing in business continuity and managing business interruption risks. In this role, he supports clients with identifying risks to operations and developing business continuity capabilities to help ensure and demonstrate the resilience of their organizations. An expert in the field for over 12 years, Kevin has championed the development of a lean business continuity approach that focuses on efficient processes, provides effective tools to manage business interruption risks, and delivers increased value to clients.
Senior Vice President and National Practice Leader, Alternative Risk Solutions
Matthew is the national practice leader of alternative risk solutions for Marsh Canada. His current role involves assisting clients in understanding and evaluating risk financing solutions to enhance or supplement current insurance structures, and presenting risk financing options and concepts related to alternative capital, such as captive insurance companies. Matt has developed broad knowledge of risk financing alternatives and solutions, analyzing various risks and spanning diverse industries including but not limited to retail, public entity, energy, utility, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture and real estate.
The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) gives you insight into when and how a wildfire may be approaching your site by providing daily fire weather and fire behavior maps year-round.
FireSmart™ Canada helps you lessen your wildfire risk by offering resources that address common concerns about wildfire in the wildland urban interface.
FM Global provides reports and data sheets that can help you protect and prepare yourself against wildfire risk with recommendations on how to mitigate your exposure.
Although the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) standards for wildland fire management are not publicly available, NFPA’s wildfire division offers many free resources, such as fact sheets and online trainings, which can help you reduce your risks of damage and loss due to wildfire.
In 2022, The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released a report calling for a new risk mitigation and wildfire management strategy recognizing that we can minimize the risk of extreme wildfires by being better prepared and building back better in their aftermath. By employing its 5Rs framework, organizations can better develop a holistic wildfire response plan.
