While climate change is being felt more and more, the summer season in Canada is starting to become synonymous with the season of forest fires. Anticipating the potential economic consequences of fires, Statistics Canada began to assess how the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) could be affected in the evacuated areas.
Since the beginning of the year, Statistics Canada has evaluated that the 2,061 fires covering an area of 3.88 million hectares “have spread or have caused evacuations in regions representing approximately 0.125 % of Canada’s GDP. »»
This year, Manitoba was evaluated as the most vulnerable province economically on fire, since the regions affected represented 2.4 % of the GDP in the province.
“In northern Manitoba, where some of the largest fires are concentrated, economic activity in the regions affected by forest fires represents more than a quarter (26.3 %) of the region’s GDP,” continues the report.
The report also indicates that if the effects of fires on national GDP are limited, the consequences on local economies could be enormous, especially in the regions where the inhabitants have been evacuated longer.
