Republished January 18, 2017 - 8:24 AM
Original Publication Date January 17, 2017 - 3:00 PM
EDMONTON - An economics professor at MacEwan University in Edmonton is compiling numbers on the direct and indirect costs of last spring's Fort McMurray wildfire. Here are some of Rafat Alam's preliminary findings (not including insurable losses):
$8.9 billion: Total net direct and indirect cost
$985 million: Lost oilsands production
$2.2 billion: Loss of timber
$647 million: Provincial disaster assistance and recovery costs
$458 million: Lost labour income
$369 million: Firefighting costs
$300 million: Lost provincial taxes and royalties
$167 million: Lost federal taxes
$271 million: Evacuation and accommodation costs
$55 million: Lost revenue to Fort McMurray businesses
$9 million: Mental-health costs
$183 million: Environmental damage
$850 million: Carbon release
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. The researcher originally pegged the overall cost at almost $10 billion, but later updated the figure with new information.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2017