Environment | Three times more Quebec residents in flood-prone areas
Quebec has launched a consultation on the regulation of flood-prone areas, but concerned officials are denouncing that citizens are being consulted before even knowing if they live in one of the new areas at risk of flooding. According to the Ministry of the Environment, three times more Quebec residents would live in flood-prone areas, according to the new way of mapping flood-prone areas. But in Pointe-Calumet in the Laurentians, almost the entire territory would be considered a flood-prone area with the new regulations, according to the mayor. « There are currently 96% of residences in a flood-prone area, » said Sonia Fontaine to La Presse Canadienne after consulting the preliminary maps, while barely « 20 houses out of 2500 » were previously. On Tuesday morning, the mayor had not yet communicated this information to the population. « These data are not final, » she explained, specifying that it is the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) that has reached these conclusions using the government’s new methodology to map flood-prone areas. « We wake up one morning like this, with the values of our homes going down, mortgage uncertainty, insurance uncertainty, » and « we enter a period of 90 days of uncertainty, » she said. The 90 days correspond to the public consultation period launched on Tuesday by the government for citizens to give their opinion on several new regulations, including the modernization of flood-prone area mapping. For the CMM, the new maps should have been published before asking for the population’s opinion. « We hope that these maps are part of the consultation because citizens need to know where they are located and what the impact is. Citizens will react to a map much more than to regulations, » argued Massimo Lezzoni, general manager of the CMM. He explained that the organization he represents was involved in the steps concerning the new regulations and has up-to-date mapping for its territory, which includes 82 municipalities. « During the consultation, the first thing citizens will ask us is ‘am I in this area’? Unfortunately, we don’t have a concrete answer to give them, » said the mayor of Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac. Mayor François Robillard is particularly concerned about citizens who have been given government permission to rebuild their homes since the 2019 disaster but who could soon learn that they are in a « red zone. » Five years ago, a dike in this Laurentian municipality gave way, the flood caused considerable damage and required the emergency evacuation of thousands of people on about 50 streets. Before this statement from the CMM and some mayors, the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, explained at a press conference on Tuesday morning that the new mapping was not completed for the entire province and he estimates that about 80% of urban communities in Quebec will have completed their mapping of flood-prone areas by spring 2025. Several months, therefore, after the public consultation.
A new way of mapping
Currently, about 22,000 homes in Quebec are located in mapped flood-prone areas. With the new maps, 77,000 homes, or about 2% of the population, would be in such an area, according to the estimates of the Ministry of the Environment. Currently, the mapping of flood-prone areas presents recurrence rates of « 0-20 years » and « 20-100 years, » while the new generation of maps proposes a new classification with four risk categories: low, moderate, high, and very high. For example, « very high » corresponds to a risk of over 70% of being flooded at least once over a 25-year period and with water intensity exceeding 60 centimeters during a flood. When the water reaches this intensity, emergency vehicles cannot circulate anymore. There is nothing in the proposed regulations that would require a riverbank resident to relocate. However, each level of risk corresponds to new regulations regarding the construction and renovation of residences located in these areas. For example, a homeowner with a house in a very high-risk area would not be allowed to build a new residence or rebuild a destroyed house. However, this homeowner could carry out renovations or modifications such as changing the location of the electrical entrance or arranging rooms on the second floor to make the residence more resilient to floods. In the « high » zone, new constructions would be prohibited. Some exceptions are provided, and these should be accompanied by a risk management plan. « These new maps, based on the latest scientific knowledge, will take into account both the frequency of floods, their intensity based on the depth of water reached, the presence of blockages, as well as the impacts of climate change, » according to the Ministry of the Environment’s information. In Quebec City, the Liberal opposition has criticized some measures of the regulatory framework. « Although the government claims not to want to relocate riverbank residents, the prohibitions on reconstruction or enlargement in areas considered at high risk will eventually lead to relocation and abandonment of properties. Entire sectors could face de-vitalization, but no measures to address this are proposed, » wrote Liberal MP Virginie Dufour.
New regulation of flood protection structures
Currently, there are about thirty flood protection structures (OPI) in the territory. These include concrete flood barriers or dikes like the one in the City of Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac. The government plans to impose a series of measures to ensure the safety of such infrastructure, including the establishment of a public registry. Municipalities should also conduct a characterization study and disseminate a summary. Municipalities with OPIs should also integrate prevention measures into their civil security plan. The new regulation also includes standards for the monitoring and maintenance of OPIs.
A necessary framework, but some concerns
The Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ) has welcomed the project to modernize the regulatory framework but asks the government to ensure « the maintainability and the ability to obtain mortgage financing » as well as « to have predictability of the project’s impacts on land use planning and municipal finances. » The Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) also believes that these new regulations are necessary but remains concerned about « the impacts of certain provisions for sectors located behind flood protection structures (OPI) and on the value of many properties located near these structures. » In a statement, the CMM wrote that it believes that « reasonable adjustments can be made quickly. »
One billion in damages
Minister of the Environment Benoit Charette has indicated that the proposed regulation is necessary due to the extent of climate change. The minister recalled that in 2017, the flood forced the evacuation of over 4000 people and affected 293 municipalities. In 2019, more than 10,000 people in 240 municipalities were evacuated due to floods, and thousands of homes were flooded. In the spring of 2023, in Charlevoix, nearly 300 properties were affected by floods. The government estimates that the floods of 2017 and 2019 alone cost the state over a billion dollars.
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