Pierrefonds-Roxboro mayor slams Quebec’s proposed flood zone expansion

Article content

Concerned over a proposed expansion to local flood zones, more than 100 Pierrefonds-Roxboro residents gathered Thursday evening in the borough’s cultural centre for an information session on the plans.

Borough residents recently learned that about 1,800 properties would be inside flood zones under the expansion — 70 per cent of which were not previously considered at risk of flooding. Residents were visibly frustrated throughout the presentation, criticizing the new map and expressing concern over what it might mean.

Article content

“The majority of those 1,800 have never had a drop of water … ever,” Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis told The Gazette.

Across Greater Montreal, new mapping would include 15,500 residential buildings in flood zones, double the current number.

The map, developed by the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) according to instructions from the province, is not yet final. If it’s approved, it could affect property values, insurance coverage and government response to flooding, Beis said.

“These are real, real issues that I think will affect not only our community but communities across Quebec.”

The province has asked the public for feedback, opening a public consultation June 19. But with the consultation period set to end Oct. 17, the proposed map only became public Sept. 30.

Beis criticized that choice. “Why would you get involved in a consultation without the information being readily available?”

The meeting opened with remarks from Beis and a presentation from the CMM. The province had tasked the CMM with drawing the flood map for Greater Montreal along provincial guidelines.

Article content

Article content

The flood zones have been greatly expanded, said Brent Edwards, CMM team lead for flood risk management. He said that’s in part because of a provincial requirement to include areas that could be flooded once in a 350-year period, compared with the current 100-year requirement. That would see properties that have a less than a one-per-cent risk of flooding in a given year included on the map.

The mapping also considers climate change, the major floods in 2017, 2019 and 2021 and the possibility of non-optimal floodwater management.

It isn’t fully clear what expanded flood zones will mean for those who live in them.

But two Pierrefonds residents told The Gazette they’ve already had a taste of one potential consequence.

Shortly before the proposed map came out Sept. 30, Al Wiebe and Linda Kipper lost a sale on their house.

The buyer couldn’t get financing after the bank told them the house was in a flood zone, Wiebe said. “Our house is not in a flood zone.”

When the new map came out, Wiebe and Kipper said they were surprised to learn their property could soon be considered at risk of flooding. “Our house has never flooded,” Wiebe said, including during the last three major Quebec floods.

Article content

Having already missed one opportunity to sell their house, “this is even going to make things worse,” Kipper said. “We’re very upset.”

Expanded flood zones could also allow the province to deny flooding victims financial support, Beis told The Gazette.

“I feel the government is almost washing their hands of it,” he said.

About a dozen residents lined up at the microphone following the presentation, with many wanting to know why areas that had never flooded and were far from water were included in the flood zones.

Article content

Edwards reiterated that the requirement to calculate a 350-year flood risk significantly enlarged the zone, as well as the need to account for climate change. “We have to increase the flow rate of the river” when drawing the map, he said.

Beis said Quebec, not the CMM, shoulders the blame for any consequences the proposed map may have.

And the CMM representatives had their own criticisms for the province.

The proposed map would define four types of flood zones, ranked from high risk to low risk. In all but the lowest risk zone, property owners would be barred from demolishing a structure for the sake of renovation, said Nicolas Milot, the CMM Director of Environmental Transition.

That would prevent a property owner from demolishing and rebuilding property to be more resilient to flooding, Milot said.

“For us, when it comes to the rules, it’s undoubtedly this one that poses the most problems,” he said.

Without the CMM’s intervention, the proposed flood zones would be even larger, Edwards said. The province only agreed to moderate proposals for what it would consider a flood zone because of negotiations with the CMM, he said.

Article content

Beis told residents to make their views known to the province, including by participating in the public consultation.

“Every single one of us has a responsibility to get involved, to send information to the government level.” But he said he isn’t sure the province is listening.

“I always try to have an optimistic spirit, but if I look back to the way this has progressed to where it is today, I can only say that somebody is making these decisions without talking to the people who matter the most.”

jawilson@postmedia.com

x.com/jackdlwilson

Article content

Article content