Introduction

This methodology explains how Summit Commercial Solutions constructs, maintains, and publishes Commercial General Liability (CGL) price ranges for Canada excluding Quebec. It defines scope, data windows, normalization rules, source hierarchy, update cadence, and versioning so that our numeric price pages are transparent, reproducible, and comparable over time. For CGL product context, see our Canadian overview of Commercial General Liability.

Scope and geography

• Line of business: Occurrence‑based Commercial General Liability (primary layer).

• Geography: All Canadian provinces and territories except Quebec (exclusion due to distinct legal regime, language requirements, and market dynamics).

• Industries: Construction and realty, professional services, technology, manufacturing, retail and wholesale, health and wellness, hospitality, nonprofits, agribusiness, energy and power, and other sectors we serve across Canada.

• Currency: CAD.

• What our published “price” represents: Annual premium for the primary CGL policy, excluding provincial taxes, stamping/filing fees, broker service fees, and umbrella/excess layers (unless explicitly stated). For how brokerage compensation works, see How We Get Paid.

Unit of analysis

• Quote‑level observations from licensed Canadian insurers and Lloyd’s coverholders placed through Summit.

• One observation = one firm, bindable primary CGL premium for a unique insured at a point in time.

• Each observation is tagged with: effective date, province, industry, revenue/payroll exposure, limits, deductible/self‑insured retention, claims status (loss‑free vs. loss‑active), and special underwriting conditions.

Data windows and sample construction (2025)

• Primary window: Rolling 12 months ending September 30, 2025.

• Secondary window: Prior rolling 12 months (Oct 1, 2023 – Sep 30, 2024) used for stability checks and trend estimation.

• Inclusion: Bound policies and firm, bindable quotes. Exclusion: Non‑bindable indications, expired terms without confirmation, project wrap‑ups/OCIPs, manuscript forms with non‑market terms, and captive programs.

• Minimum cell size: n ≥ 15 observations per province‑industry‑size bucket; otherwise the cell is suppressed or rolled up to the next level (industry group or regional aggregate).

Source hierarchy

1) Bound policies (most weight) 2) Firm, bindable quotes (standard rating) 3) Firm, bindable quotes with special conditions (e.g., higher retentions)

When multiple options exist for the same risk and date, the observation used is the lowest bindable premium for materially equivalent terms after normalization.

Normalization rules

All observations are transformed to a common comparable basis before calculating price ranges.

• Limits and aggregates

• Standardized to CAD $2,000,000 per occurrence and CAD $2,000,000 general aggregate (unless noted on a page). If the source limit differs, we apply limit relativities derived from carrier rate sheets or actuarial curves available to Summit at time of pricing and cross‑checked against market reasonability.

• Deductibles/retentions

• Standardized to a nil deductible for bodily injury/personal & advertising injury and a CAD $1,000 property damage deductible unless the class is commonly nil; where deductibles differ, premium is adjusted using carrier debit/credit tables when available; otherwise via empirically fitted elasticity from our dataset.

• Exposure base

• Where carriers rate on gross revenue (most common) or payroll/area, we convert premiums to a revenue‑rated equivalent using observed multipliers within class and insurer. Normalized metric: premium per $1,000 revenue.

• Geography

• Provincial relativities are retained; we do not blend across Quebec and do not publish Quebec relativities.

• Claims status

• Loss‑active accounts are flagged; when we publish “loss‑free” bands, we exclude observations with paid or reserved losses in the most recent 5 policy years.

• Inflation and trend

• Economic trend: Adjust to the mid‑point of the primary window using the Statistics Canada Consumer Price Index (all‑items) and relevant sub‑indices for services where appropriate.

• Insurance market trend: Where carriers issued across‑the‑board CGL rate changes during the window, we adjust older observations to current‑rate equivalents using declared insurer rate changes or empirically observed renewal movements in the same class/insurer cohort.

• Currency and taxes

• All figures in CAD. Published ranges exclude provincial premium taxes, regulatory/stamping fees, and HST/PST/GST.

Standardization quick reference

Price construction

• Within each province‑industry‑size bucket we compute:

• p25–p75 (interquartile “typical” range)

• p10–p90 (wider market range) where n ≥ 30

• Median premium and premium per $1,000 revenue

• Outlier handling: Winsorize at the 5th/95th percentiles by bucket after normalization.

• Weighting: Bound policies receive weight 1.0; bindable quotes weight 0.75; quotes with special conditions weight 0.5.

• Presentation: Numeric pages display p25–p75 and the median. When sample sizes are insufficient, we aggregate to a broader industry group or display a qualitative indicator (“insufficient data to publish a reliable range”).

Industry and size taxonomy

• Industry mapping follows Summit’s site taxonomy (e.g., Construction & Realty; Professional Services; Technology; Manufacturing; Retail & Wholesale; Health & Wellness; Hospitality; Nonprofit; Agribusiness; Energy & Power). See the corresponding industry pages from our site navigation for definitions.

• Size buckets by annual revenue: Micro (<$500k), Small ($0.5–5M), Mid ($5–50M), Large ($50–250M), Enterprise (>$250M). Where carriers rate on payroll, we convert to revenue‑equivalent using within‑class ratios.

Update cadence and governance

• Cadence: Quarterly (target first business day of Feb, May, Aug, Nov). Ad‑hoc updates occur if market‑moving events (e.g., broad insurer rate filings) materially change ranges.

• Quality controls: Peer review by a second analyst, replication of calculations, reconciliation to raw quote logs, and spot checks against current in‑market quotes before publication.

• Suppression: We suppress any slice that could reveal a specific client or insurer strategy.

Versioning and change log

• Versioning format: YYYY.MM.DD‑MAJOR.MINOR.

• Current version: 2025.11.06‑1.0 (initial release of 2025 methodology).

• Future changes: Material methodology changes increment MAJOR; minor clarifications or sample‑size expansions increment MINOR. Each numeric price page will display the methodology version it relies on.

Known limitations

• Ranges reflect Summit’s market mix and may not capture every carrier appetite in every province.

• Normalization relies on carrier relativities and empirical fits; true relativities can vary by class and underwriter.

• Unique contractual requirements (e.g., U.S. jurisdiction, high sub‑limits, complex additional insured wording) are not fully captured in standardized adjustments and may price outside our published ranges.

How to interpret our numbers

• Use cases: Benchmarking, budgeting, and relative comparison across industries and sizes.

• Not legal or coverage advice: Always review actual policy language and endorsements.

• For bespoke or high‑hazard risks, contact our team for a tailored market read.

Sources and references

• Summit Commercial Solutions product pages, including Commercial General Liability and related industry pages cited in our site navigation.

• Public economic indicators: Statistics Canada Consumer Price Index (CPI) and sub‑indices; Bank of Canada inflation commentary.

• Insurer communications: Filed or communicated rate actions and underwriting bulletins received by Summit during 2024–2025.

• Summit placement data: De‑identified bound policy and quote records within the data windows described above.

Contact and next steps

• To validate a budget or request a class‑specific view, reach out via Contact Us. We will apply this methodology to your parameters and provide current market options for Canada (excluding Quebec).