Violent, spectacular and disastrous, the floods that devastated Baie Saint-Paul are part of those hydrological phenomena that were supposed to occur only once a century, but which have hit Quebec with worrying regularity in recent years.
In the spring of 2011, historic flooding damaged more than 2,500 homes in the Richelieu Valley. In the spring of 2017, due to the overflow of the Ottawa River watershed, more than 5,000 residences were flooded. Then, in the spring of 2019, it all started again: more than 9,000 residences were affected in 310 municipalities located in five regions of Quebec.
Each time, hundreds of millions of dollars in damages are recorded, most of which is borne by the State. These floods occurred in 0-20-year-old zones — where construction should not have been permitted, but which municipalities greedy for property taxes have complacently authorized — but also in 0-100-year-old zones.
These repeated disasters have led to a certain awareness on the part of the government.
From the outset, it is obvious that the compensation programs intended for disaster victims are no longer sustainable if the residences, which the owners had the right to restore in many cases, risk suffering the same damage before long. It was necessary to agree that land use planning was deficient and that many had to resign themselves to abandoning their homes.
Moreover, the CAQ government found that no one was really responsible for mapping the territory. We didn’t even agree on the definition of a flood zone. Assessments were often lacking in rigor, if any. In 2021, the CAQ government passed the Act establishing a new development regime in flood-prone areas, accompanied by an in-depth review of their mapping.
On the other hand, in a report unveiled at the end of April, the commissioner for sustainable development noted that for the sole issue of coastal erosion, there was no integrated management plan, that the three ministries concerned (Transport, Environment and Safety public) did not act in a concerted manner and that knowledge in this area was “missing”.
Commissioned by the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ), a study by WSP consultants and the Ouranos consortium, made public just before the last elections, estimates the costs that Quebec municipalities will have to incur at two billion per year until 2055. to adapt to climate change, or 12% of their current expenditure.
In his press briefing on Tuesday, François Legault questioned the enormity of the sum claimed. He recalled that his government had committed 1.2 billion in five years for adaptation to climate change. In addition, the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, will shortly announce how much of the new $1.4 billion credits from the Plan for a Green Economy will be reserved for this purpose. “Already, we are doing a lot,” said the Prime Minister.
Even if we can quibble about the figure put forward by the UMQ and the contribution that the municipalities will have to make on their side, the sums that the Legault government has already put on the table, an average of 240 million per year, clearly appear. insufficient.
In terms of adaptation to climate change, Quebec is still in its infancy. The government can no longer content itself with reacting to emergencies and repairing the damage at great expense. It cannot continue to deprive itself of a well-financed overall plan and medium-term planning.
Without it, it will cost more anyway, in money and in human drama.