Other business types

The rest of what I write.

Restaurants, contractors, transportation and commercial real estate have their own pages because those are the four I write most. Everything below is a market I also place, with the exposure that actually decides the policy in each one. If your business isn’t on this list, ask anyway — the list is where my carrier relationships are deepest, not the limit of what I can cover.

Tourism & tour operators

Halifax runs on a five-month season, which means a bad July is a bad year. Whether you run harbour cruises, walking tours, bus tours or an adventure outfit, the exposure that decides your policy is participant injury — and a signed waiver is a starting point, not a defence. If you shuttle guests in your own vans, commercial or non-owned auto is sitting quietly underneath everything else.

Does my waiver mean I don’t need liability insurance?

No. Waivers get challenged, and Canadian courts have narrowed them plenty of times. A waiver lowers the odds of a claim succeeding. The policy pays your legal defence either way, and defence is usually the larger number.

I only operate May to October. Can I pay for six months?

Liability is written annually, so not directly. But seasonal operations can often have property and equipment rated to reflect a closed off-season, and your business interruption limit should be built around the season rather than the calendar year.

Retail & main-street shops

Stock, fixtures, the plate glass at the front, and whatever your lease makes you responsible for. Most retail policies I inherit have a contents limit set the year the shop opened and never touched since, which is fine right up until you have to prove what was on the shelves. The other regular gap is business interruption: if the building next door burns and the block is closed for six weeks, that is a claim you can only make if you bought the coverage.

What are leasehold improvements and do I need to insure them?

If you paid to fit out a space you don’t own — walls, flooring, lighting, counters, signage — that is yours to insure, not your landlord’s. It is one of the most commonly under-insured items in retail, and the number is usually much larger than owners expect.

My landlord insures the building. Am I covered?

Only the building. Their policy does nothing for your stock, your fit-out, your lost income, or your liability to a customer who is injured in your shop.

Moving & storage companies

Two exposures that a standard commercial package handles badly. Goods in transit, meaning customers’ belongings while they are on your truck, and warehouse legal liability if you also store. Both are separate coverages, both are frequently missing, and a damaged piano is not a general liability claim.

Doesn’t my cargo coverage handle household goods?

Not automatically. Cargo forms routinely exclude or sub-limit household goods, fine art, antiques and electronics. The declared value on your bill of lading and the limit on your policy need to agree, and often they don’t.

What limit do I need on the storage side?

Enough to cover the maximum value in the building at one time, not the average. Insurers will ask whether the warehouse is sprinklered, and the answer moves the rate significantly.

Cleaning & janitorial companies

Your crews work unsupervised inside other people’s buildings, usually after hours, often with keys. That makes care, custody and control the clause that matters — damage to the property you are working on is excluded from most general liability forms unless it is deliberately bought back. Add a fidelity bond if your contracts require one, and most institutional contracts do.

What is a janitorial bond, and is it the same as insurance?

Not the same thing. A bond responds to theft by your employees at a client’s premises. Liability responds to damage and injury. Plenty of building contracts require both, and being asked for one is not the same as having the other.

A cleaner damaged a client’s floor. Is that covered?

Under a standard form, probably not. Damage to property in your care, custody and control is one of the classic exclusions, and it has to be endorsed on with a limit that reflects the buildings you actually service.

Medical & dental clinics

The clinical exposure usually sits with your college or professional association coverage. What I write is everything around it: the premises, the equipment, the tenant’s improvements, and the cyber exposure that comes with holding patient records. A clinic with an electronic records system and a payment terminal is a data breach waiting for a reason.

I have malpractice through my professional body. What else do I need?

Premises liability, property and equipment, business interruption, and cyber. Malpractice answers for the treatment. It does nothing when a sprinkler line lets go over three hundred thousand dollars of imaging equipment.

Does cyber cover a ransomware attack on patient records?

A properly written cyber policy covers the incident response, the notification obligations that privacy legislation imposes on you, and the income you lose while you are locked out. Whether it will fund a ransom payment depends on the specific form, and that is a question to settle before you buy, not during.

Pharmacies

Refrigerated stock that spoils when a compressor fails, controlled substances that attract break-ins, and product liability if you compound. Equipment breakdown is the coverage pharmacies most often lack, and it is the one that pays when the fridge goes down on the Friday of a long weekend.

Is spoiled refrigerated stock covered by my property policy?

Only if the cause is a covered one. Mechanical or electrical failure is generally excluded from property and picked up by equipment breakdown, which has to be added along with a spoilage limit that matches what is actually in the fridge.

Do I need product liability if I only dispense?

If you compound, without question. If you only dispense, general liability usually responds — but the products section of your wording should be read rather than assumed, particularly if you sell any own-brand retail lines.

Breweries, distilleries & cideries

A brewery is a manufacturer, a bar and a warehouse at the same time, and insurers price each of those differently. Tank failure and batch contamination sit with equipment breakdown and product recall. If you run a taproom, liquor liability applies from the moment you serve, and it is a separate thing from your general liability.

What happens if a batch is contaminated after it has shipped?

That is product recall: the cost of getting it back, destroying it, and the income you lose in the meantime. General liability pays someone who was harmed by the product. It will not pay to retrieve it.

Does my general liability cover the taproom?

No. Serving alcohol requires liquor liability, and Nova Scotia’s approach to over-service makes that a live exposure rather than a formality. Your server training records are part of how the risk gets rated.

Salons, spas & barbershops

Treatment liability is the piece people miss. A burn from a chemical service, a reaction to a product, an infection following a nail service — those are professional exposures, not premises exposures, and a general liability policy on its own will not answer them. Then add the tenant’s improvements you paid for and the equipment you would have to replace overnight.

Does my liability cover a client’s reaction to a treatment?

Under general liability alone, usually not. You need treatment or professional liability endorsed onto the policy, and the schedule of services on it should match what you actually offer today rather than what you offered when you opened.

I rent chairs to independent stylists. Whose insurance applies?

Both. They need their own policy, and you need a certificate on file confirming it. Without that, a claim against a chair renter has a habit of finding its way to the salon owner.

Gyms, studios & fitness

Participant injury is the whole risk, and the waiver question is the same as it is in tourism: helpful, not decisive. Equipment maintenance records matter more than most owners expect, because a snapped cable on a machine you cannot prove you inspected is a very different conversation with an adjuster. If you employ trainers or run instructed classes, that is professional liability on top.

Are my members’ waivers enough on their own?

They improve your position, they do not remove the need for coverage. Defending a single serious injury claim will cost more than most small studios pay in premium over several years.

What about trainers who rent space from me?

They should carry their own professional liability, and you should hold the certificate before they take their first client — not go looking for it after an incident.

Daycares & childcare

Licensed childcare carries an exposure most other businesses do not: abuse liability. It is a specific coverage, it is not automatic, and it is the first thing a licensing body or a parent’s lawyer will ask about. Beyond that, the ratios on your licence affect the rating, and field trips quietly bring non-owned auto into the picture.

Is abuse liability included in general liability?

Almost never by default. It has to be added, and some markets sub-limit it well below the policy limit. Check the number rather than just confirming the coverage is present.

Do I need anything extra for taking children off-site?

Yes. And if staff drive their own vehicles for outings, non-owned auto liability protects the centre once their personal policy limit is exhausted — which in a serious accident with children aboard is a real possibility.

Professional services

Accountants, consultants, agencies, engineers, law firms. The claim that ends a firm like yours is not a fire, it is advice — a filing missed, a design that does not work, a recommendation that costs a client money. That is errors and omissions, and general liability explicitly excludes it. If you hold client data, add cyber alongside.

What is the difference between E&O and general liability?

General liability pays when you injure someone or damage their property. E&O pays when your work or your advice causes a client financial loss. They answer entirely different claims, and most firms need both.

A client’s contract demands a $5 million limit. Can I get there?

Usually yes, with a primary policy plus an excess layer above it. Send me the actual contract clause though — the limit is only half of what these clauses ask for, and the indemnity wording is often the harder half.

Tech & startups

Halifax has a real cluster here, and a lot of it is under-insured because the risk does not look physical. Tech errors and omissions covers a product that fails to perform as promised. Cyber covers your own breach and your clients’ data. Once you have taken outside investment or seated a board, directors’ and officers’ coverage stops being optional.

We’re pre-revenue. Do we need anything yet?

If you have a customer contract, a landlord or an investor, one of the three will require it. Cyber and tech E&O are normally the first two policies a software business actually needs.

Is cyber the same as tech E&O?

No. Cyber responds when your systems are breached. Tech E&O responds when your software or service fails and a client loses money because of it. Most SaaS businesses need both, and the overlap between them is smaller than people assume.

Landscaping & snow removal

Two businesses inside one policy, and the winter half is the dangerous one. Slip-and-fall claims arising from snow and ice clearing are among the most litigated exposures in this province, and your service contract — what you agreed to clear, how often, and to what standard — will be read out line by line. Keep your site logs.

Am I liable if someone slips on a lot I cleared?

Potentially, and your contract decides how much. A contract promising a “safe” or “clear” lot is far worse for you than one specifying a trigger depth, a schedule and a standard. I would rather read the contract before you sign it than after the claim.

Does my summer landscaping policy cover snow removal?

Not automatically. It is separately rated and some markets will not write it at all. Tell your broker before the first storm rather than after, because mid-season is a bad time to discover you are on the wrong form.

Event, catering & food trucks

Mobile operations get rated on where you go and who you serve. A food truck is a vehicle, a commercial kitchen and a retail counter simultaneously, and the fire suppression on board affects both the price and whether a market will take you at all. If you cater at venues, most will demand to be named as additional insured before you are allowed through the door.

Venues keep asking to be named additional insured. What does that mean?

It extends your liability policy to protect them for claims arising out of your operations at their site. It is routine, it is normally free, and I can usually issue the certificate the same day you ask.

Is my food truck covered while it is parked and trading?

This is the part people get wrong. An auto policy may cover the vehicle in transit only. The trading exposure — a customer burned, food that makes someone ill — needs commercial general liability sitting alongside it.

Fisheries & seafood processing

Product contamination and spoilage are the exposures that scale here. A refrigeration failure in a processing plant is a six-figure loss before anyone has been harmed, and a recall on product that has already shipped is worse. If you operate vessels, hull and marine liability sit on a separate policy from the shoreside plant, and the two need to meet cleanly at the wharf.

Does property insurance cover spoiled product?

Only where the cause is covered. Mechanical failure of refrigeration is equipment breakdown, and spoilage has to be specifically included with a limit that reflects peak inventory rather than an average month.

Is my vessel covered under my business policy?

No. Vessels need marine hull coverage and protection and indemnity, written in the marine market. A commercial package policy will not respond to a loss on the water.

Marine & boat operators

Charter operators, marinas, workboats and water taxis. Marine is a separate market with its own rules — navigational limits, lay-up periods, crew coverage — and a landside broker who treats a boat like a truck will get it wrong. If you carry paying passengers, your passenger liability limit and your navigational limits are the two clauses that decide whether a claim pays.

What are navigational limits?

The geographic area your policy actually covers. Operate outside it and you may effectively be uninsured. If your routes have grown since the policy was written, that is worth checking before the season starts.

Do I need coverage for boats stored over winter?

Lay-up coverage handles the vessel out of service, usually at a reduced rate. It matters more than owners expect, because fire and theft losses tend to happen in the yard rather than on the water.

Auto repair & body shops

The coverage that defines this trade is garage, and specifically customers’ autos in your care, custody and control — which a standard commercial package does not touch. A vehicle damaged on your hoist, or taken off your lot overnight, is only covered if you bought that section. Faulty workmanship is the second gap: liability pays for the resulting damage, not for redoing the job.

Is a customer’s car covered while it’s in my shop?

Only under garage coverage for customers’ autos. Your general liability excludes it as property in your care, and your own property policy does not cover vehicles you don’t own. It is a specific section and it needs a specific limit.

A repair failed and caused an accident. Am I covered?

The resulting injury and property damage, generally yes. The cost of correcting your own faulty work, generally no — that is the “your work” exclusion and it appears in almost every liability form written.

Light manufacturing & fabrication

Machinery, stock at various stages of completion, and a product that leaves your building and keeps existing. Equipment breakdown and business interruption matter most, because one failed machine stops the line and the income loss usually dwarfs the repair bill. Products liability then follows what you made for as long as it is in service.

How is stock-in-process valued at claim time?

On your cost at that stage of completion, not the finished sale price, unless you have arranged otherwise. It is worth agreeing the valuation basis in advance rather than negotiating it with an adjuster after a fire.

What indemnity period should I buy for business interruption?

Long enough to replace your slowest piece of equipment and get back to normal trading. If a machine has a nine-month lead time, a three-month indemnity period will run out while you are still waiting for the delivery.

Security firms

Guard services carry an assault and battery exposure that most general liability forms exclude or heavily sub-limit, and it is precisely the claim this industry gets. Insurers will want to see that your guards are properly licensed under Nova Scotia’s private security rules. Errors and omissions applies as well, because failing to prevent a loss you were retained to prevent is a professional claim, not a liability one.

Is assault and battery covered?

Not by default in most forms. It is either excluded outright or sub-limited well below the policy limit, and it has to be negotiated deliberately with a market that understands guard operations.

Do I need E&O as well as liability?

If your contract promises a standard of service, yes. A client suing over a theft you were hired to prevent is an errors and omissions claim, and your general liability policy will decline it.

Film & production

Nova Scotia’s production sector runs on short-term, project-specific coverage: equipment, third-party property damage, and errors and omissions on the finished work before a distributor will touch it. Production insurance is normally placed per project with certificates issued for each location, and turnaround speed matters more than almost anything else — a location that will not issue a permit stops the shoot that day.

Can I insure a single production rather than the whole year?

Yes. Short-term production policies are standard, priced on shoot days, locations and equipment values. Annual policies make sense once you are running several projects a year.

What is E&O in a film context?

It covers claims about the content itself — rights, clearances, music, defamation. Distributors and broadcasters routinely require it before they will take delivery, so it is worth arranging well before you are trying to close a deal.