Volume 56, numéro 1, 1988 DOSSIER SPÉCIAL : POLLUTION ET ASSURANCE

EN :

The Pool Responsabilité Civile Pollution – Québec has been formed under the initiative of the Insurance Bureau of Canada – Québec. lt is a voluntary, non-profit, unincorporated association of insurers and reinsurers formed to partially respond to market needs. The Pool is a reinsurance agency that provides market capacity for limited pollution liability insurance to its members, as well as risk evaluation and loss control. The Pool's operations are administered by the Insurers' Advisory Organization Inc. The author is the first President of the Pool. He describes its history and its constitution as given in his speech at a seminar of the Quebec Insurance Institute on 30 November 1987.

EN :

Our collaborators, Messrs. Yergeau and Saint-Denis, present a concise summary of federal and provincial powers with respect to environmental protection rights, the progress made with respect to the legislative corpus in this area as well as the stalemates encountered where court decisions are concerned. The authors also provide an historical look back at the events which first made the society aware of the need for environmental protection and the protests which led to environmental rights as we know them today. What is implied by the term environment, how can we damage it and how is it protected by Quebec and Canadian laws – these are the questions considered by the authors, both associated with the Montreal law firm Lavery, O'Brien.

EN :

The author examines certain documents of the GARPOL co-reinsurance group formed in France in 1977 to provide an answer to environmental and pollution claims. This group, which consists of a pool of foreign and French reinsurers, is involved in providing coverage for environmental risks and functions under the aegis of a steering committee whose responsibilities include the administration and definition of guidelines in the event of a claim. The author also provides an overview of the French policy model.

EN :

Liability insurers have struggled for years to distinguish pollution incidents which they intend to cover from those they intend to exclude to the satisfaction of the courts. However, as the authors point out here, a number of recent cases indicate the courts' willingness to recognize the intent of policy language. In this exhaustive study, they examine how these cases have shed new light on the rule of ambiguity in policy language, on coverage for cleanup costs, on defense limitations, and on the pollution exclusion itself.

FR :

Nous désirons présenter ici un travail publié par The John Liner Review, qui a bien voulu nous autoriser à le faire paraître avec la référence ci-dessous. Le but de cet article américain est de montrer la barrière entre les événements assurables et ceux qui sont inassurables, selon l’assurance de responsabilité civile des entreprises, tel que vu par les tribunaux. Étant donné la grande similitude du nouveau formulaire américain avec le nouveau formulaire canadien, force est de reconnaître l’intérêt de cette étude.

EN :

Insurers and Company Managers have always been reluctant to deal with environmental risk. Environmental auditing is a means to evaluate the risk in order to establish more easily insurance premiums. For enterprises, it also has many advantages as it leads to a better management of environmental issues, helps minimize liabilities and contributes to lower insurance premiums. New Federal legislation on environmental protection will encourage company managers to incorporate environmental auditing into their regular activities.

EN :

PCB's were first introduced in Canada in 1929 and since that time have been used as component of many products. PCB's were prohibited in the United States and Canada in the seventies by many environmental legislations. But the problem is how to safely dispose of over 55 years of production. Me Rémi Moreau briefly describes in this article the properties of PCB's, the inherent risks, the direct and consequential damages, such as bodily injury, property damage, loss of income, debris removal. The author also comments on the underwriting of PCB's exposures and finally insists on a prevention program. The following insurance is discussed in regard of PCB's coverages, exclusions or limitations: automobile insurance, property insurance, boiler and machinery insurance and liability insurance.

EN :

This paper is an attempt to present the problems which result for the insurance and reinsurance industry from pollution. It can only provide an insight into the situation as it now stands. Technological developments in nearly all fields are unusually rapid and facts and processes which are still thought today to be fully up-to-date may be outdated by tomorrow. This paper is intended to provide an incentive to follow up the problem both in its general and in its individual aspects in order to establish as reasonable as possible a position for the insurance industry, from a Reinsurer's point of view.

EN :

In his article written on December 31, 1987, Mr. Yves Millette presents the highlights of life insurance in Canada in 1987. In particular, he points out the significant increase in the types of life annuities available. He also notes that, during the past year, universal life insurance was the most predominant form of life insurance underwritten and that health and accident insurance premiums increased by 13.6%, while benefits rose by 7.8%. In addition, in 1987 personal life insurance companies took advantage of deregulation to acquire, in particular, various financial institutions.