His winery served as a roof for days when the fire was at the gates of his city. But today, Joanna Schlosser, a resident of Kelowna, British Columbia, is most worried about the long-term damage to her farm and the economy in general.
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This year the country is experiencing the most intense forest fire season in its history: a total of almost 16 million hectares have burned and 200,000 people have been displaced, especially in the West and the Far North.
Many regions are at a standstill, industries are affected: the bill and the economic impact are gradually growing.
“We are facing a pretty devastating season in terms of visits and sales to the vineyards,” Joanna Schlosser, who had to flee her home within minutes in the middle of the night, told AFP.
More than 200 homes were destroyed by the flames in this wealthy and highly touristy region of British Columbia.
This year, tourist flows have fallen sharply as travelers flee the fires and smoke that have been choking the region for weeks. With Kelowna’s airport and main street temporarily closed, tastings, weddings and other events have been canceled.
Stephen Brown, an analyst at Capital Economics, explains in a note that wildfires generally have little measurable impact on the Canadian economy.
But this year “they are so widespread that we are seeing larger impacts than usual.”
They appear to be “the cause of much of the recent GDP weakness,” and with wildfire season not yet over, “numbers are expected to remain poor in the coming months,” he added.
Canada’s economy contracted 0.2% in the second quarter, and the start of the third quarter followed the same trend.
Factors contributing to this decline included “wildfires that disrupted oil and gas production in May and limited consumer activity in June,” according to James Orlando of TD Bank. Another sector was affected: the timber industry, which employs more than 30,000 people in the country.
In a June report, Oxford Economics warned that wildfires could reduce Canada’s economic growth by 0.3 to 0.6 percentage points this year.
However, the balance sheet was “not as bad as it could have been,” said Tony Stillo of Oxford Economics.
“While wildfires are historically significant, they occur in more remote areas and have less impact on large populations, economic centers or transportation corridors – which could result in disruption to utility lines,” he explained.
In its new climate adaptation plan, Ottawa estimates the annual cost of fighting wildfires at $1 billion.
And most importantly, emphasizes that, according to the Canadian Climate Institute, climate change, which worsens drought episodes and therefore makes forest fires more likely and frequent, could halve Canada’s expected economic growth in the coming years.
By 2030, average annual catastrophe losses are expected to reach $15.4 billion.
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, which represents various private insurance companies, insurance losses have already increased five-fold since 2009 and amount to more than $2 billion per year.
Jason Clark, who works for the organization, says he’s concerned that Canadians are no longer facing a disaster every decade, but rather “multiple events linked together in a single year” – fires, floods , heat waves, storms…
“When countries regularly suffer large losses, this has a significant impact on risk assessments and insurance premiums,” he adds.
“We need to be better prepared.”