And the winner of the Insurance Institute’s NextGen Risk case competition is….

Fanshawe College team members in London, Ont., took home $4,000 for winning the Insurance Institute of Canada’s 2026 NextGen Risk: Insurance Case Competition, held in Calgary Mar. 11-13.

The team presented risk solutions to a fictitious commercial client that asked their brokers to help them reduce wildfire risks endangering their outdoor gear and safety supplies business in Northern Alberta.

“This year’s NextGen case connected to various touchpoints of our business, and it required the competitors to perform as part of multifunctional teams in order to solve it,” says Peter Hohman, president and CEO of the Institute.

In many ways, the business in the case scenario, Boreal Outdoor Supply Ltd., is a nightmare client for brokers. Located in a dense, forested area, the operation has no sprinklers, is surrounded by a wood fence, stores wood pallets on their premises (covered in brush), the asphalt roof is 18 years old and needs replacing, and there is only one road leading into the community.

In making its final presentation to the judges, Fanshawe’s team noted Boreal, which sells fire fighting and emergency equipment as well as outdoor gear, carried a huge reputational risk.

“You’re providing fire protection materials or something to fight fires in general,” Fanshawe team member Jeff Bowden told contest judges, who played the role of the company’s execs. “If our building burned down, our reputation burns down. And that’s a loss in trust in people that supply the materials.

“That reputation is a value on its own. These [proposed risk mitigation investments], they add value to your property, but they [also] protect that brand image. And if we’re able to operate in the community that’s fighting the fires, that’s also a brand image boost. Those reputational bonuses are massive for a company, because once you lose reputation, you’re never going to get it back.”

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Fanshawe’s team made several recommendations to the company for short-term and long-term improvements. They concluded their presentation by rating the company’s profile on a specialized matrix they developed to assess the likelihood and impact of the company’s fire risks.

“Now I want to take you back to that risk scoring matrix that I showed you earlier,” said Fanshawe team member Jaedyn Alison Laanstra. “As you can see, we had our risks in red, with a risk score of 93. Now, after we’ve implemented ERM (Enterprise Risk Management), and we’ve done the process [of implementing the recommendations], we now have a risk score of 26. That’s a decrease of 72%.”

Fourteen teams participated in the case competition, including students in insurance risk and business programs at postsecondary schools in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.

Mount Royal University finished second ($2,000), while Seneca College placed third ($1,000).

At Bow Valley College in Calgary last Thursday, the students were given a detailed case scenario at 8 a.m., and worked in rooms without phones or Internet access until 5 p.m., when they submitted their final Power Point presentations.

No one was allowed to change their slides after 5 p.m. on Thursday. However, several teams worked late into the night to refine their spoken presentations to the judges, who work in the property and casualty insurance and risk space. 

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“The judges and organizers were very impressed with the level of insurance knowledge and professionalism that the teams presented in their responses,” Hohman says. “Congratulations to all of this year’s competitors.”

The event was sponsored by CNA Insurance, Wawanesa Insurance, Hub International, Intact Insurance, and Peace Hills Insurance. The Institute’s Career Connections program facilitated the event.

Editor’s Note: Canadian Underwriter attended the event and will provide extensive coverage — including individual team member profiles, details about the case, and the team finalists presentations — in an exclusive, week-long LinkedIn newsletter series in April.

David Gambrill

David has twice served as Canadian Underwriter’s senior editor, both from 2005 to 2012, and again from 2017 to the present.