We now know just how bad last years wildfires were in the Kamloops area.
In a report presented to the Thompson Nicola Regional District, a review of the wildfire damage portrays just how devastating the season really was.
30 million dollars in direct economic losses to small business, with indirect losses even higher in the TNRD. One million dollars in lost wages, 21 million dollars in loss of sales, while 30 per cent of the workers faced layoffs.
Myles Bruns, the regional manager for the Community Wildfire Recovery Branch made the presentation to the board.
“16 per cent reported their losses were directly due to actual damage they lost to structure or something. Even though a lot of our businesses had business interruption insurance, probably just about half of them, less than 10 per cent were actually able to successfully make a claim.”
Bruns says, a majority of the respondents anticipate economic losses in 2018 and beyond.
“Half the people that were surveyed figure that their losses are going to grow, so they incurred losses during the summer that’s going to continue particularly in the tourism sector.”
The report makes a number of recommendations to help the small business sector.