The Quebec government is introducing a new generation of flood maps aimed at better protecting residents from climate risk, while Montreal presents a compelling—but not yet funded—vision of an urban paradise that will be affordable, leafy, and mostly car-free by 2050.
The nascent flood management plan announced by the François Legault government last week contains some difficult truths. The long overdue updating of flood maps will triple the number of Quebec households designated to be at risk of inundation, reports the Montreal Gazette.
Current flood mapping guidelines, which concern themselves only with the probability of flooding in any given year, designate some 22,000 households at risk.
Under the new guidelines, which will consider “flooding intensity” alongside probability, some 77,000 households will be on the list.
The updated flood maps, expected to be in place by 2025, will use a four-zone system, ranging from “very high” (areas projected to be at 70% risk of flooding over 25 years to depths of more than 60 centimetres) to “weak” (areas projected to be between 7% and 20% risk over 25 years to depths of less than 30 centimetres).
The C$480-million plan arrives “in the wake of two seasons of devastating floods in 2017 and 2019 that hit more than 240 municipalities and caused more than $1 billion in damages,” the Gazette writes. It is the product of years of consultation with scientists, municipalities, and dozens of community organizations, following decades of neglect by policy-makers.
The flood maps themselves have yet to be generated. They will “be produced in collaboration with municipalities in the coming months, and the new flood management plan as a whole will be the subject of public consultations with residents and municipalities this summer,” reports CBC News.
Under the new regulations, citizens already living in flood zones will be able to repair and renovate their homes, but those in high-risk areas will not be allowed to rebuild if floods destroy their homes outright, explains the Gazette. New builds will no longer be permitted anywhere in highly flood-prone areas.
The new flood management plan will also strengthen guidelines municipalities must follow to reduce flooding risks, and improve maintenance and security of the roughly 30 dikes in the province to protect shoreline communities.
Municipalities that successfully mitigate flood risk through flood protection efforts (like more dike-building) could see themselves reclassified into a lower risk zone, reports CBC.
Addressing Environment Minister Benoit Charette during the media conference announcing the new flood management plan, Martin Damphousse, president of the Union of Quebec Municipalities, said the new plan was welcome but more detail was needed.
“You know, minister, as of today municipal officials will be getting numerous questions, for which they will not have responses,” Damphousse said. “It’s essential your ministry meet the citizens to inform them, and reassure them about the future.”
One of the big questions will be how the new flood zone designations will affect insurance rates.
Meanwhile, in Montreal, Mayor Valérie Plante has shared her administration’s “intelligent”—but, as yet, unfunded—hopes for what the city will look like in 2050, CBC reports.
The product of years of consultation, Plan Montréal 2050 is intended to guide future planning decisions. It prioritizes affordable housing, walkability and mass transit, and a significantly expanded tree canopy.
Greater urban density is a core part of the plan, with 200,000 homes being added, 20% of them “off-market: co-ops or social housing, for example,” CBC writes.
More cars are not a part of the plan. Plan Montréal 2050 envisions the “vast majority” of trips in the city by that date occurring on foot, on two wheels (along all-season bike lanes), or via an expanded transit network.
The city will also be much greener if Plante’s vision becomes a reality. Where Montreal’s 2020 target for tree canopy coverage was 26% by 2025, Plan Montréal aims for 40%. The new plan also includes 125 kilometres of new “green corridors.”
“We want to develop the territory in an intelligent way,” Plante told media.
The mayor acknowledged that the city won’t be able to go it alone, especially on the transit and housing aspects of the plan.
“We don’t control financial decisions and we’re dependent on federal and provincial governments,” she said. “But for us, it was important to show the way.”
