New study finds major gaps in Canada’s disaster cost reporting

Disasters pose a growing risk to population health and the resilience of health systems. However, a new study by Dr. Mazen El-Baba and colleagues in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas found that Canada’s disaster cost data are incomplete, with more than half of recorded disasters lacking cost estimates, raising concerns about preparedness prioritization, recovery planning, and accountability.

Dr. El-Baba, a PGY5 resident in Emergency Medicine at the University of Toronto, began examining this issue during his Disaster Medicine Fellowship at Harvard University. He became interested in how often Canada debates disaster response capacity, particularly during wildfire season, without a clearer understanding of the data used to estimate disaster costs and inform preparedness decisions.

“There were growing discussions about investing more in emergency preparedness, but much less clarity on the evidence being used to guide these investments,” he says. “Before we decide where to invest, do we actually have a reliable picture of what disasters are costing Canada?”

To answer this question, Dr. El-Baba and his colleagues analyzed the Canadian Disaster Database, a federal repository of disaster events. While the database offers valuable historical insight, their findings revealed that economic data is often incomplete and lacks transparency in how cost estimates were derived.

In a retrospective analysis, the study found that between 1990 and 2020, only 278 of 636 recorded disaster events included cost data. These gaps matter because disaster-related costs influence how governments prioritize preparedness, how health systems plan for disruptions, and how the burden of disasters is understood across communities.

The study also highlights disparities in reporting, particularly for rural and Indigenous communities, where disaster costs were less consistently captured. When impacts are not well documented, these communities risk becoming less visible in national planning, recovery, and policy decisions.

“If governments are going to invest wisely, they need a clearer understanding of the economic impact of disasters from a public health and health systems perspective,” he says. “This is not just about counting dollars after the fact. It’s about using data to guide smarter investments across mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.”

Beyond financial losses, disasters carry broader consequences, including the loss of homes and infrastructure, disruptions in care, worsening health outcomes, and long-term strain on communities and health systems. The study underscores that improving how these impacts are measured is a critical step toward better policy.

To address current gaps, Dr. El-Baba emphasizes the need for clearer national standards for disaster cost reporting – what is reported and when, how costs are estimated, and how events are geographically tagged.

“This has to be nationally driven but locally supported, with strong federal-provincial-territorial coordination and meaningful involvement of local, regional, and Indigenous leadership,” he says.

He also highlights the importance of modernizing disaster reporting systems to improve completeness, timeliness, and transparency, while maintaining an equity-focused approach.

Dr. El-Baba sees this study as just the tip of the iceberg. A key next step is to examine how Canada’s disaster reporting systems compare with those in other countries and whether they align with emerging international expectations for disaster-loss reporting and surveillance.

“What stood out to me most is that this is not just a story about rising costs,” says Dr. El-Baba. “It’s also a story about visibility, equity, and national priorities. If rural and Indigenous communities are less completely represented in disaster cost reporting, then their needs risk being less visible in the systems that shape preparedness, recovery, and accountability.”

Dr. El-Baba hopes the study will help broaden the conversation beyond whether disasters are becoming more costly to also ask whether those costs are being measured accurately, whose losses are being counted, whose are being missed, and what that means for how Canada prepares for the future.

“Improving disaster cost reporting is not just about better data; it is about better decisions for communities, health systems, and governments,” he says.