Snow removal insurance cost in Canada

The published starting prices

These come from Zensurance’s 2026 cost guide. They’re for commercial general liability (CGL) only, at a $1 million limit:

Our quote partner doesn’t cover Québec, so neither does this site. Zensurance’s own line on this table is worth repeating: two insurers looking at the same snow business can quote wildly different numbers.

That’s liability only

The table doesn’t include the truck. Commercial auto is a separate policy. Tools and equipment, equipment breakdown and an umbrella for higher limits are extra too.

Zensurance’s own pages don’t all say the same thing. Their winter guide mentions policies starting around $2,200 a year. Their Ontario page says to expect $1,000 a month or more for a basic policy with $1 million in coverage. That’s $12,000+ a year, more than three times the $3,800 starting price. Take the gap as a warning. The starting price is what a clean, simple operation might see. Plenty of Ontario operators pay a lot more.

How high it goes

Two news stories from 2021 show the top end:

• Toronto. A lawn care company that shovels about 500 driveways saw its premium go from $5,000 in 2016 to $70,000, then $110,000 (CBC). Tony DiGiovanni of Landscape Ontario told CBC that rates over $100,000 were common.
• Alberta. An Alberta contractor, Canada Yard Pro, paid $7,800 one year and got renewal quotes as high as $65,000 the next (Global News).

Those are bigger operations in a hard market, and the stories are a few years old. They aren’t what a one-truck driveway route should expect. They are why the high end of our estimator is wide.

What moves your price

These are the factors Zensurance lists in its cost guide, with what they mean on the ground:

• Where you plow. Ontario costs more. Zensurance puts that down to how slip-and-fall litigation plays out there.
• What you plow. A residential driveway route is priced differently from a big-box parking lot.
• Salt and ice work. If you’re responsible for ice, you own more of the fall risk. Zensurance also lists pollution liability for salt damage.
• Trucks and equipment. More units, more value, more risk.
• Staff and subs. More people on the route, more chances for an accident.
• Revenue. More revenue reads as more jobs.
• Experience. Ten seasons in is a different risk than your first winter.
• Claims. Zensurance says six or more claims-free years can help keep your premium down. A claim pushes it up.
• Limits. Commercial contracts usually want $2M. Some tenders want $5M.

Two more you control yourself: your paperwork (service logs, salt records, photos) and how clearly your contract says when you show up and what you do.

How the estimator works

The low end of every range starts at Zensurance’s published starting price for that kind of operation: $1,800, $2,500 or $3,800. Nothing below that is shown.

Everything above the starting price is our estimate. We widen the range for Ontario, salt and ice work, extra trucks, staff, higher revenue, $2M or $5M limits, and recent claims. The multipliers are our judgment, not filed rates. Insurers don’t publish rate tables for this class. The high ends are wide on purpose because of stories like the CBC and Global News ones above.

Use it to sanity-check a number before you spend an evening on applications. Then get a real quote.

Other cost pages worth reading

getcertain has its own Canadian cost ranges. KASE and ThinkInsure are Ontario brokers with useful checklists. We’re not connected to any of them and don’t control their numbers.