President's Report
We will remember the winter of 2015 for some time. While we moved seventeen feet of snow, many people had their livelihood affected when building roofs collapsed under the weight of that snow. There are a few engineered barns and warehouses that have collapse coverage. Most of the buildings that collapsed were not covered. If you have a homeowner's policy, your dwelling is covered for collapse, but your decks and eaves troughs are excluded.
When the snow melted, water ran right through some houses. Outside water is not covered; however, the sewer back-up endorsement does cover water that overflows a floor drain or sump hole with a working sump pump.
PEI Mutual paid a lot of claims in 2015, covering $13.5 million dollars' worth of damage. Fire, water escape and sewer back-up were leading causes of covered losses. This is the third year in a row of poor underwriting results; however, because of PEI Mutual's strong financial position from 130 years of being in business, we are able to keep your Mutual rebate at 10% for 2016.
We invited everyone to come to the opening of our new PEI Mutual building at 116 Walker Avenue, Summerside. The building is great. All of our staff packed their stuff and made the move. I want to thank them for their extra efforts. A special thank-you to Terry Shea, Blair Campbell and Rudy Smith for ironing out details of the building with our contractor Wellington Construction and our architect and engineer Coles Associates Ltd.
Gordon Vessey retired from the Board of Directors following the Annual Meeting in April, 2015. Gordon served on the Board for over 22 years. His voice added a lot of good reasoning to discussions around the board table. We wish Gordon and his wife Ethel a happy retirement.
We welcomed two new Directors in 2015. Shane MacKinnon, a dairy farmer from Richmond, and Joan Dennis, a professional educator from Charlottetown. Your Board of Directors are from across the Island and look forward to planning for your future needs. It has been a privilege to serve as President of PEI Mutual. May God bless this Mutual Company.
George Matheson,
President