If you were to play a round of The Price Is Right about how much damage bears have inflicted on Sunshine Coast vehicles in recent years, the answer would be a total of $277,227.30.
After an Earls Cove resident’s recent experience with a black bear drinking 69 cans of pop from her vehicle went viral (and got laughs on a late night show), Coast Reporter asked ICBC for statistics on bear-caused damage claims.
The insurance company shared five years of data, from 2017 to 2021. The numbers do not include vehicle collisions involving bears, but do include Gibsons, Roberts Creek, Sechelt, Halfmoon Bay, Pender Harbour and Madeira Park.
From 2017 to 2021, there were 110 bear-related claims filed by Sunshine Coast residents. In 2017, there were 33 claims, then down to 11 in 2018, 19 in 2019, 15 in 2020, and back up to 32 in 2021. Of those years, bear-related claims in 2021 had the highest cost at $111,924.75. The second highest year was 2017 at $57,553.44 (even though there was one more claim than the 2021 count), followed by 2018’s $45,942.05 in claims, $33,370.45 in 2020 and $28,436.61 in 2019.
Numbers for 2022 were not provided.
