activity for the rest of the year, from eastern Alberta to central Ontario, government experts said on Thursday.
Experts said while this is not a huge jump over the 10-year average or the 25-year average, the fires this year have been more intense and have burned over a much larger area than in previous years to become the worst wildfire season Canada has yet seen.This is four times larger than the entire area of Switzerland.
Wilkinson said Natural Resources Canada is making $256 million available over five years to provinces and territories to procure lifesaving wildland firefighting equipment and essential personnel. But the cost of fighting the wildfires has also been immense. Natural Resources Canada said the biggest area of cost is the effort that goes into fire suppression, which is going to be “significant” this year according to experts.B.C., Alberta, N.W.T and Saskatchewan are the only jurisdictions that have shared the cost of fire suppression in the year so far.Government officials said this does not take into account insured property losses, which may run anywhere between $700 million and $1.