Sometimes it takes a disaster like Fort McMurray to make us prepare for the next one - Analysis

By Don Pittis

Following the Nakina tragedy, Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources took swift action. It immediately banned inexperienced junior rangers from working on forest fires. Following an exhaustive inquiry, it introduced strict rules governing prescribed burns that were shared across the country.

When they are costly enough — either in human life or in dollars and cents — governments are forced by public opinion to try to prevent similar disasters from happening again.

Until last week, Quebec's 1998 ice storm was Canada's most expensive natural disaster, with insurance claims alone worth $1.9 billion in inflation-adjusted terms. In the aftermath, Hydro Quebec spent millions trying to make its system ice-storm resistant including increasing the physical strength of towers and poles.