In Victoria the age of a building is half the file.
There is no S&S counter on the Island. We are licensed to arrange insurance anywhere in British Columbia, so a Victoria file is built by phone and email, and it is built the same way as one built across a counter. If you are on the mainland, our Main Street office in Vancouver is open without an appointment.
Call 604-324-5711 Branch details and hours Build your fileWhere can I find a business insurance broker for Victoria?
S&S does not have an office in Victoria. We are licensed to arrange insurance anywhere in British Columbia, and a Victoria file is handled by phone and email. Call 604-324-5711, or write to us. We answer by the next business day.
What we are asked for most here.
An old downtown, a working harbour and a city sitting on a subduction zone. That shapes almost every conversation:
Old Town, and what is behind the paint
Old Town is the biggest of Victoria’s heritage districts. It holds 195 heritage properties the City calls individually significant. A designated building cannot be altered or pulled down without Council approval. Commercial property.
Masonry that was never reinforced
The City’s own seismic study names unreinforced masonry, at any height and any age, as a high risk. So are pre-1972 low rise concrete, steel and reinforced masonry, and buildings sitting on soft soil. Commercial property.
The harbour and the working waterfront
Transport Canada owns the Port of Victoria, from the Ogden Point breakwater to the Selkirk trestle. Moorage has been passed to harbour authorities and marinas, so who holds what varies berth by berth. Marine cargo.
Restaurants, bars and a short season
Greater Victoria hotel occupancy hit 94.3 per cent in August 2025 and 79.9 per cent for the year to that point. A kitchen that busy in summer and quiet in winter is a different risk in each half of the year. Restaurants.
Trades working across the region
The City says one Inter-Municipal Business Licence covers all 13 towns in the Capital Regional District. What a general contractor asks you to carry on site is separate. That comes from the contract. Contractors.
Offices, clinics and professional firms
Health care and social assistance, public administration and retail trade are the three biggest employers in the region. Firms that advise, treat or design carry a different kind of exposure from firms that sell. What counts as professional.
The study behind a lot of these questions.
The City has published its own seismic study of Victoria. It is the plainest public account of what the ground here could do. It is worth knowing what it says before a renewal.
One
The scenario
The study says the most likely damaging event for Victoria is a rupture of the Cascadia subduction zone. It puts that at roughly a 10 per cent chance within 50 years.
Two
The damage
Under the largest credible event in the same study, about 65 per cent of the city’s building stock could be red tagged, which is the tag that keeps people out of a building. The study splits that into 6 per cent complete damage and 60 per cent extensive damage.
Three
The buildings named
The study names unreinforced masonry as high risk at any height and any age. So are pre-1972 low rise concrete, steel and reinforced masonry, and buildings on soft soil.
Four
What the rules ask
The City does not currently require a seismic upgrade by bylaw. Building work runs through the Building and Plumbing Regulation Bylaw No. 17-113, which adopts the BC Building Code, and the City is the place to confirm what applies to your building. The City’s Heritage Tax Incentive Program does put seismic upgrading at its core. Joining it is a choice.
Five
The water
The Capital Regional District coastal assessment of 2015 names four parts of Victoria at risk of inundation. They are the Inner Harbour, Ogden Point, Dallas Road, and the Gorge industrial land.
Sources: City of Victoria, citywide seismic vulnerability assessment, and the Capital Regional District coastal sea level rise risk assessment.
Three things that catch people out here.
Repairing a heritage building is not an ordinary repair
You need a heritage alteration permit to change a designated or registered property. The City’s maintenance standards bylaw asks for new materials that match the old ones in design and texture. That changes what a rebuild looks like. Commercial property.
Shaking is its own question
Shaking is dealt with separately from fire and water. Whether it is in your policy at all, and on what terms, is set out in your own wording. That is worth reading before a renewal, not after one. Commercial property.
What it would take to build back
A rebuild has to meet the code and the heritage rules in force at the time, not the ones that applied when the building went up. If the sum insured was set years ago, it is worth looking at again. How long it pays.
From shops, firms and operators in Victoria.
Do you have an office in Victoria?
No. There is no S&S counter on the Island. We are licensed to arrange insurance anywhere in British Columbia, so a Victoria file is handled by phone and email. Our nearest office is 6607 Main St in Vancouver, and you are welcome there without an appointment if you are on the mainland.
Is earthquake damage covered by a property policy?
Shaking is treated separately from fire and water. Whether it is in your policy at all, and on what terms, is set out in your own wording. That document governs. In a city that has published its own seismic study, it is worth reading before a renewal rather than after an event.
My building is on the heritage register. Does that change anything?
It changes what you may do to it. The City says alterations to designated and registered properties need a heritage alteration permit, and a designated building cannot be altered or demolished without Council approval. The City also sets out what counts as normal maintenance, and the City is the place to confirm what your own property allows.
Do I need a Victoria business licence if I work across the region?
Every business operating in the City of Victoria needs a business licence. The City says an Inter-Municipal Business Licence lets you operate in all 13 municipalities in the Capital Regional District, and that a separate Inter-Community Business Licence covers 15 Vancouver Island communities. Confirm the current fees with the City.
Is my building at risk from coastal flooding?
The Capital Regional District coastal assessment of 2015 names four parts of Victoria at risk of inundation. They are the Inner Harbour, Ogden Point, Dallas Road and the Gorge industrial land. The City and the Regional District are the place to confirm your own address.
Can you help if a policy was declined or not renewed?
Yes. Tell us what was said and what was asked for. Some files need to be presented differently rather than sent to more places. Declined or hard to place.
The guides that matter most here.
Water damage cover
Where the wording splits water from a pipe and water from outside. Read the guide.
How long business interruption pays
An old building takes longer to put back. The period is picked before anything happens. Read the guide.
The lease insurance clause
What a downtown lease asks you to carry, and what it does not. Read the guide.
Who pays the deductible
In a building with more than one owner, this is the question that decides the bill. Read the guide.
Serving alcohol
For bars, tasting rooms and events, the liquor question sits on its own. Read the guide.
What liability does not cover
The short list of things a liability policy is not written to answer. Read the guide.
Why Victoria files look the way they do.
Health care and social assistance, public administration and retail trade are the three largest sectors in the Victoria area. Together they account for 41 per cent of regional jobs. The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority handled 316 cruise ship calls and about 970,000 passengers in the year to 31 March 2025. In 2024 the City of Victoria issued 1,214 building permits and welcomed 656 newly licensed businesses.
Sources: Government of Canada, local economies, Victoria, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority annual report, and the City of Victoria annual report 2024. They open in new tabs. The figures are theirs, not ours.
Not sure what you are carrying and what you are not? Run the Risk Snapshot, or read the insurance guides.
Call us, or write to us.
No ticket, no call centre. Our nearest counter is 6607 Main St, Vancouver, if you are ever on the mainland.
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