Alberta wildfire could cost insurers as much as C$9 billion: BMO

A wildfire in the Alberta city of Fort McMurray could cost insurers as much as C$9 billion, making it by far the costliest ever Canadian natural disaster, according to research by Bank of Montreal Capital Markets. BMO Capital Markets analyst Tom MacKinnon said that figure was a worst-case scenario based on a comparison to a wildfire in Slave Lake, Alberta in 2011. The bill for insurers was C$700 million in that fire, and the Fort McMurray fire is bigger and the properties more valuable.