Disaster-recovery bill climbs to $141M, 1 year after Fort McMurray wildfire

Since the last May's wildfire,Fort McMurray's municipal government has spent $141.6 million on emergency response and recovery.

• Fort McMurray gets extra $20M to cover wildfire fighting, clean-up costs
• Alberta government provides breakdown of $647M in wildfire costs

The municipality spent $118.4 million on fire fighting, providing security around damaged neighbourhoods, overtime and salaries, andcontracted labour and supplies within the first six months of the disaster, show numbersreleased at aWood Buffalo Recovery Committee meeting Wednesday.

Since then, the municipality has spent $20.3 million on recovery operations and$2.8 million on infrastructure projects such as minor slope stabilization.

The entire amount is expected to be covered byAlberta'sDisaster RecoveryProgramwhich ensuremunicipal infrastructure andservices are returned topre-disaster state.

To date,the municipality has received$107.8 million from the province.

The Wood Buffalo Recovery Task Force expects to spend $48 million on recovery as the city rebuilds more homesin 2017, said Mark Power, project services manager.

"Once the boots are on the ground, the cost-burn increases rapidly," Power said.

The FortMcMurraywildfire, still smoldering in some places, covered 589,552 hectares and forced 90,000 people from their homes last May before devouring more than 2,400 homes and buildings.

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