Gilles Larivière had seen nothing coming. After 40 years of working in a local factory, he intended to begin a quiet retirement in the house he has lived in for 43 years in Cowansville with his wife, Céline, who raised their children. A merciless fire that occurred on January 14 and a recent law, however, have reduced his candid hopes to crumbs. Autopsy of a bureaucratic nightmare that has lasted for months.
Located a few dozen meters from the Yamaska River, the land at 114, rue Knight, in Cowansville, charmed Gilles and Céline Larivière decades ago. So much so that they decided to build the house there where their two children grew up, without knowing that it would be razed by an accidental fire years later. The couple was also unaware of another important piece of information: according to official maps, their house is located in a flood zone. In an area of weak current whose recurrence of floods is estimated at 20 to 100 years, more precisely.
Met by The duty Faced with what remains of their former home, Gilles and Céline Larivière are visibly overwhelmed by the turn of events. “I’m getting into it,” mutters Gilles, who has lost 40 pounds in the past two months. Celine, meanwhile, takes three different medications to ease her anxiety and depression. “It’s a nightmare,” she articulates painfully, her voice choking with emotion. She has been on medication for several years, but her daughter, Geneviève, has noticed a major relapse in the last few weeks. “For my parents, she explains, it’s not even a financial question anymore, it’s a question of mental health. »
When the fire broke out, Gilles and Céline moved in with their daughter, her husband and her two children. They undertook to fill out the usual paperwork: contact the insurer, find a contractor to rebuild, obtain a demolition permit… The foundations of the house were however deemed intact by the insurer, which was a small relief. . The trio finally submitted an application for a reconstruction permit to the City in April.
To his greatest surprise, the permit application was refused: the foundations of the house do not correspond to the safety standards required by the transitional regime for the management of banks, coastlines and flood zones, which came into force on 1er March 2022 at the initiative of the Government of Quebec.
Gilles and Céline are faced with a choice: pay a contractor to completely redo the foundations, which they believe would cost $60,000 and would not be covered by insurance, since they were deemed intact after the fire ; or simply move elsewhere and leave for good the land where they have lived for 43 years.
Bureaucratic inertia
With her spouse, Geneviève struggles with all possible authorities to get her parents out of the impasse. The City, the regional county municipality (RCM) of Brome-Missisquoi, the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC) — which is responsible for applying the transitional regime —, the Ministry of municipal and Housing, the office of the local deputy… Nothing helps. Everywhere, she is redirected to another instance, she is given evasive answers or she is not contacted at all.
Geneviève Larivière deplores several injustices in the misfortune that befell her parents: first, she affirms that the municipality never warned them that they lived in a flood zone. Secondly, she finds it absurd that the last available updates of the maps of the flood zones of the region date back to 1992. She argues that her parents’ house has never been seriously threatened by a flood.
It also deplores the vagueness surrounding the safety standards required by the transitional regime. “Even if new foundations are being built at my father’s expense, no one seems to know what criteria are needed to comply with the requirements of the transitional regime,” she complains, adding that the many engineers she contacted were also unaware of this information. Finally, she points out that several citizens could one day find themselves in the same situation as her parents, and she attests that before she warned them, their neighbors were unaware that they were also in a flood zone.
Limit flood damage
The transitional regime for the management of shores, coastlines and floodplains was introduced after the major floods that forced thousands of Quebecers to leave their homes in 2019. Its main purpose is to standardize standards in provincial flood zones. “The policy that the MELCC previously had was applied by the MRCs, and it was sometimes interpreted more liberally by municipalities,” explains Danielle Pilette, associate professor in the Department of Strategy, Social and Environmental Responsibility at UQAM.
In March 2021, the government therefore gave birth to Bill 67, which announced the application of a provincial regulation — the transitional regime — which finally came into force on 1er March 2022. If the Larivière family had applied for a reconstruction permit before this date, they could have avoided all this hassle.
The transitional regime is in effect until 2027, when a final regulation should be established. “It is possible that the boundaries of high-flow flood zones will be reviewed by 2027,” says Professor Pilette. The Larivière family therefore has the option of waiting five years before submitting a new request for reconstruction, in the hope that the delimitation will change.
Mme Pilette recalls that the transitional regime “aims to put in place measures that will protect the population against floods” and stresses that “all studies show that floods are likely to be more and more frequent and intense” because of the changes climatic. ” They [les élus] have put more than less in the transitional regime to assure people that the measures are being taken to protect them, ”she explains.
This is recognized by Geneviève Larivière, who fully understands the reason for this regime. However, she deplores the lack of proactivity of the various authorities to support her family in this ordeal and the fact that her many questions often remain a dead letter.
After weeks of discussions, the City finally agreed to “exceptionally” hire a land surveyor at its expense to try to have the map of the region’s flood zones reviewed. If nothing changes, the Larivières will hire a biologist to determine if the shoreline area can be redefined. They also plan to meet with a lawyer to explore possible legal avenues.
“We are still waiting for certain answers to rule and make the right decision before authorizing the reconstruction of the building”, indicated to the To have to the director of the Urban Planning and Environment Department of Cowansville, Marc-Antoine Dunlavey, by e-mail. For its part, the MELCC was unable to answer our questions, despite our repeated requests.
If none of the proposed remedies bear fruit, the Larivières will pay out of pocket for the construction of new foundations, since there is no question of going to live elsewhere than on this land they have lived on for 43 years. In which case they will have to cut their budget, which particularly afflicts Gilles, a motorcycle enthusiast.
“I dreamed of going on route 66”, he recalls, his face closed, sadly aware that decades of work at the factory may not have been enough to provide him with the peaceful retirement he has always dreamed of.