Joanna Schlosser has found refuge from the encroaching wildfires at a winery where she works, but is now struggling with a downturn in tourism and other far-reaching consequences for the company – and Canada’s economy.
An inferno leaped over Okanagan Lake and was hurtling down the hills behind their Kelowna home when a knock on the door woke the family of five and ordered them to leave immediately.
For two weeks they lived with other evacuees, some of whom lost their homes, in a guest house on Quails’ Gate Vineyards. About 200 houses in the valley would be destroyed.
“Your home is your biggest investment, and when you’re only five minutes away from it, you start thinking about things you left behind that you may never see again,” Schlosser told AFP.
She was also concerned about the ongoing harvest.
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None of the 222 wineries in the region reported direct fire damage. However, they suffered a sharp drop in sales as tourists stayed away in August, the peak month.
Kelowna Airport and Main Street have been temporarily closed. Tasting tours, weddings and other events at the wineries have been cancelled.
“We are now in for a pretty devastating season in terms of wine traffic and sales,” Schlosser said.
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More than 15 million hectares (37 million acres) were burned and 200,000 people displaced across Canada, from Halifax on the Atlantic Seaboard to parts of the Northwest Territories.
Capital Economics’ Stephen Brown noted that wildfires typically have no measurable impact on Canada’s economy.
But this year he said in a research note, “Because the fires are so widespread, we’re seeing a bigger impact than usual.”
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“Canada’s worst wildfires on record appear to be responsible for much of the recent GDP weakness, and with more areas now requiring evacuation, the data is likely to remain weak in the coming months,” he said.
Statistics Canada on Friday reported a 0.2 percent decline in the second quarter and a weak start to the third.
Forest fires in mines and oil facilities were pointed out. Lumber mills were also idle.
The life of the outfitters has been turned upside down by fishing bans. A road to Tofino, a tourist hotspot on Vancouver Island with old growth forests and sandy beaches, has been cut off.
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In the Okanagan Valley, orchards complained that the smoke was blocking the sun and delaying apple ripening.
However, the toll is “not as bad as it could have been,” said Tony Stillo of Oxford Economics.
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“Although the wildfires are at record-breaking proportions, they are happening in more remote areas and have less impact on major population or economic centers or transport corridors — things that would disrupt supply lines,” he explained.
The disturbances were also relatively short.
Oxford Economics warned in a June report that wildfires could hurt Canada’s economic growth by as much as 0.3 to 0.6 percentage points this year.
Estimating the annual cost of fighting wildfires at CA$1 billion (US$737 million), Ottawa notes that climate impacts, such as more and bigger fires, could halve Canada’s projected economic growth in the coming years, according to the Canadian Climate Institute .
By 2030, average annual losses from disasters are expected to reach CAD$15.4 billion.
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, insurance claims have already quintupled since 2009 and are over CA$2 billion a year.
The bureau’s Jason Clark said the number of catastrophic events and insurance payments would continue to rise.
Of most concern, he said, Canadians were no longer dealing with a local disaster every few years or decades, but rather with “a series of events stacked on top of one another in a single year” — including fires, floods, heat waves and violent storms.
“Where countries regularly suffer large losses, this has a significant impact on insurance risk assessment and premiums,” he said.
“We need to be better prepared.”
Back at Quails’ Gate, Schlosser assessed the effects of the smoke on the grapes and noted that the industry had developed damage control techniques.
“Sometimes it works quite well, and with others (the smoky flavor) you just can’t avoid it,” she said, adding that “sommeliers may talk about the terroir as if it’s part of that vintage.”
Smoky flavor can add character to a wine, but it also has the potential to induce overpowering burnt or medicinal notes.
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