2021 B.C. extreme weather events cost province between $10 and $17 billion, study finds

The study provides a first-ever estimate of the total economic costs associated with 2021’s heat dome, wildfires, flooding and landslides.

A study has found that the costs to B.C.’s economy from 2021’s extreme weather events could be more than $17 billion.

The report said it was the single most expensive year in B.C. for climate disasters.

The study, done by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), provides a first-ever estimate of the total economic costs associated with 2021’s heat dome, wildfires, flooding and landslides.

Costs from those events are estimated to be between $10.6 and $17.1 billion, “much of which is borne directly into households and businesses,” according to the study.

When asked why the cost is not a concrete number, lead report author Marc Lee said, “actual data for many of the costs we want to measure do not exist, so we developed a range with a low and high estimate.”

Typically, cost estimates following major disasters focus on insured damages to property and cleanup costs to governments, but the study went deeper to include the lost income for workers due to business closures, lost productivity, and specific impacts on communities.

“If ever there was a year that underscores the costs of climate change, 2021 was it,” Lee said, who is also a CCPA BC Office’s senior economist.

“The costs go way beyond insured losses, which are typically the focus in the aftermath of disasters like those we saw last year.”