Alberta government provides breakdown of $647M in wildfire costs

The moneytheAlberta government spenton the wildfires in FortMcMurray paidfor everything from abandoned vehicles to psychologicalcounselling, from parks restoration toair and water monitoring.

According to themost recent breakdown of the accumulated costs,the biggest expense was $175 million that went to cover costs incurred bythe Regional Municipal of Wood Buffalo.

The government also paid $35 million for "psychosocial support services"and$1 million for abandoned vehicles, according to figures released by Alberta Treasury Board.

The total cost to the provincial government for the disaster recovery program is projected to be $647 million, offset by$452 million in disaster assistancefrom the federal government.

"Many of the final costs are still being assessed, so these numbers are subject to change," saidMikeBerezowsky, spokesman for the treasury board.

In his quarterly fiscal update this week, Finance Minister Joe Ceci saidthe province's net cost for the May wildfires was $500 million, which included anestimated $300 million loss from natural resource royalties and corporate income tax.

The un-budgeted expense of the wildfirespushed the provincial deficit to a record $10.9 billion, $500 million higher than forecast in the spring budget.