Reuters: Canada fire hit as government cut spending on prevention, planes
CALGARY (Reuters) - Alberta's cash-strapped government cut funding for wildfire prevention, including millions for programs created in response to the province's last major fire disaster, just weeks before a raging fire swept across the city of Fort McMurray, forcing a mass evacuation as hundreds of homes burned to the ground.
The cuts, some of which have not previously been reported, came as Alberta struggled to cope with a prolonged slump in oil prices that has reduced tax revenue, and as climate change makes fires more frequent and damaging in Canada's vast boreal forest.
Alberta, which projects a C$10 billion deficit this fiscal year, does not have a fixed budget for fire fighting, with spending rising and falling based on need.
But the government, which took power a year ago, does set budgets for fixed costs, including contracts with companies that operate air tankers, and programs meant to prevent damaging fires, areas where the latest cuts in April were made.
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Update: Alberta wildfire could cost insurers as much as C$9 billion: BMO (Reuters)
WNU Editor: For readers who are not Canadian (I am a Canadian citizen) .... this news is impacting everyone in Canada. This is a huge disaster, and for the families directly impacted .... words escape me. I have just finished talking to a distant cousin who works in Fort McMurray. He owns and runs a service company in the oil industry .... he is OK .... but many of his friends and workers are not. Some have lost homes .... and those who have not are worried that they may lose their home today or tomorrow. He tells me that Fort McMurray will bounce back .... there is too much oil in the ground (literally tens of billions of barrels) .... but we both know it will never be the same.
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