In early May 2016, uncontrolled wildfires engulfed much of Fort McMurray and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, leading to the evacuation of over 88,000 residents. The fires became the largest insured natural catastrophe ever recovered in Canada.
The fires had a significant negative economic impact in the short term on the region, province and country, but there will also be economic activity generated by rebuilding the Fort McMurray community.
A massive injection of funds from provincial and federal governments, as well as insurance companies will go towards the clean up and rebuilding effort in and around Fort McMurray. We estimate that $5.3 billion will be re-invested in Alberta’s economy over the next 3 years, of which $3.6 billion will be funded by the insurance industry through policyholder compensation.
In this special webinar, Pedro Antunes, Deputy Chief Economist of The Conference Board of Canada will present the economic and employment impacts of the Fort Murray wildfires.