Insurance company dollars that could help cover the cost of fighting fires in Mapleton are going unclaimed, says a representative of a company offering to help unlock that cash.
Founded in 2011, Ontario-based Fire Marque offers to recover cash for municipal fire departments by invoicing insurance companies for costs incurred by fire departments.
Fire Marque representative Chris Carrier told Mapleton council at its June 24 meeting that most property insurance policies include fire department expense recovery clauses.
“You do require some work to unlock the coverage,” said Carrier, explaining the township would need to amend its fire user fee bylaw as some insurance company wordings state a bylaw is required, prior to the loss, before a payment will be made.
Carrier said the program would not generate extra paperwork for the fire department beyond standard incident reports being done anyway.
“We are not asking your fire chief to do any duplication of work,” Carrier said.
Fire Marque charges 30 per cent of fees recovered and Carrier estimates Mapleton could generate about $14,000 in revenue “that you’re entitled to.
“That’s after the 30 per cent is taken off,” he pointed out.
Fire Marque has clients across Ontario and Saskatchewan. Locally, Centre Wellington is the only county municipality using the service.
Carrier said invoicing to recover the costs of firefighting won’t result in higher insurance rates, as the costs are already built into premiums.
“Property insurance is a very different animal than auto insurance,” he said. “We’re just asking them to honour coverage that you’re paying for.”
Mayor Bruce Whale asked what percentage of claims the company is successfully recovering.
“There are some insurance companies that aren’t paying,” Whale said.
“The people who we deal with represent over 60 per cent of the market,” said Carrier. “Most are paying.”
“I think it’s something for further discussion to see if it’s something that might work out for us,” said Whale, who pointed out property fires don’t represent the bulk of the calls in Mapleton.
“Certainly if you were to look at incidents, fire is one of our lowest ones,” he said, adding with the number of medical calls local fire fighters deal with, “health insurance might be the next one to look at.”
Council asked Fire Chief Rick Richardson to prepare a report and recommendation on the proposal.
