Two wildfires in B.C.’s southern interior caused more than $720 million in insured losses last year, making them the most costly insured extreme weather event the province has ever seen, according to a new report. Taken together, the McDougall Creek wildfire in the Okanagan and the Bush Creek East fire in the Shuswap region are now the 10th worst natural disaster for insurance payouts on record in Canada, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s (IBC) annual report for 2023. Across Canada, the IBC report estimates that natural catastrophes caused more than $3.1 billion in insured damage, making it the fourth most expensive year on record. …While the destructive wildfires that blazed through B.C. caused the most insured damage of any extreme weather event in Canada last year, the list of 2023’s costliest weather events includes everything from ice storms to flooding