By Trevor Greenway
Local Journalism Initiatve
The next generation of flood maps being developed by the Quebec government could spell out a nightmare for Hills homeowners who live in high-risk areas.
According to Quebec’s Ministry of Environment, next-generation flood maps are being developed this spring. Due to climate change, the government expects flood zones to grow by a staggering 40 per cent. Insurance experts are sounding the alarm now that homeowners can expect big changes to their coverage—very high premiums or no flood insurance at all.
“Although it is impossible to predict the outcome for a particular sector, it is expected that in the majority of cases, the next-generation floodplain maps will be larger following their new delimitation,” wrote Ministry of Environment spokesperson Josée Guimond in an email. “Sectors that were not previously identified on floodplain maps could thus become so. The Ministry estimates that the surface area of floodplains would increase by approximately 40 per cent in the next-generation maps, particularly due to the inclusion of the effect of climate change.”
In February 2024, the Desjardins Group announced that it would no longer offer mortgages to homes in some flood zones because the “impacts of climate change, including water damage, are growing in importance and causing substantial damage.”
Craig Stewart, a part-time Chelsea resident and the Vice-President of Climate Change and Federal Issues with the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) told the Low Down that these new maps could mean homeowners wake up one day and find that they can’t renew their mortgages.
“Can you imagine: you go to renew your mortgage, and you’re on the Quebec map, as you’re now in a floodplain, and you didn’t know it, and now you can’t renew your mortgage?” Stewart told the Low Down. “This could happen, absolutely. And so suddenly everybody’s looking at this problem and thinking, ‘Oh no, we’re going to have to figure our way out of this.’ And unfortunately, Ottawa has dragged its feet.”
Stewart said the problems began in Calgary in 2013, when major flooding there led the insurance industry to pay out $1.4 billion in flood claims. The industry said it would no longer cover overland flooding—water coming in from ocean surges, lakes and rivers, or even heavy rainfall—because the flood maps were out of date.
Stewart said the IBC then spent several million dollars mapping the entire country. In 2015, some companies started offering overland flooding insurance as a separate product for homes in low—or medium-risk zones. However, the mapping data showed that 10 per cent of homes—those in the high-risk, 100-year flood plains—would not be covered because “it’s not an accident; we know they are going to flood.”
“These are the ones inside the 100-year flood plain – it used to be once in 100 years. Now, it’s like every 20 years. We know they are going to flood.”
For this 10 per cent of uninsurable homes, Stewart said the federal government has stepped in and is working on a federal insurance program in partnership with insurance companies to offer high-risk flood insurance. According to Stewart, under the proposed plan the insurance company would charge a premium for the flood product and remit that money to the feds, who would “backstop the risk.”
The problem, according to Stewart, is that Ottawa has “dragged its feet.”
“These sorts of partnerships are very common, but in Canada, it’s taken us forever,” said Stewart, referring to places like the UK, France and the US, which have national insurance programs for flooding. Stewart said that these conversations started in Canada in 2017, and everything has now stalled with parliament prorogued until late March.
According to Stewart, the bigger problem is Canada’s housing plan—thousands of houses are being built to address the country’s housing crisis, but there is no real guidance on how or where to build them. He said that Canada’s building code needs updating so that contractors start building the right homes in the right places. Without new legislation in the building code, he fears many of these new homes will be built in flood zones and will be uninsurable until Canada catches up.
“The insurance industry has been saying for years, ‘don’t build in high-risk places,’ and yet, municipal governments have continued to build homes in places where they probably shouldn’t be, and the federal government has kicked building codes for resilience down the road,” added Stewart. “It should be in the building code – ways to build wildfire resilient homes or flood resilient homes – but we’re not going to get to that till 2030. So now, as a nation, we’re building thousands and thousands of new homes because we have a housing crisis, but those homes are going to be built poorly, and they are potentially going to be built in high-risk areas.”
The Hills has seen its fair share of increased storms and flooding, including last year’s Hurricane Debbie aftermath, which left Chelsea in ruin. Multiple homes flooded, roads were completely washed away, and homeowners were left with debris and mud after landslides in Hollow Glen.
Locally, the MRC des Collines is working with other regional governments—Papineau and Pontiac—to map local rivers and develop a new risk assessment for the area. However, La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux said it’s too early to comment on what those maps show, as they won’t be ready until next winter.
No flood risk? Still pay more
Chelsea resident Stephen Woodley lives on top of Juniper Road, his home has never flooded and he’s never claimed flood damage with his insurance, but two years ago, he received a letter from his TD Insurance that flooding would no longer be covered on his insurance plan. To get flood insurance, he would have to pay more.
“I mean, our whole economy is based on the single biggest purchase in our life, which is a home. And if we can’t get insurance on a home, you can’t get a mortgage, right?” Woodley told the Low Down. “We had a couple of big rain events right in Chelsea that flooded all kinds of people’s basements. My basement doesn’t flood, but I do have a sump pump. I’ve never claimed against it, but they cut it off.” Woodley said that TD did offer him flood insurance, but the premium was $1,800 per year. He said that if his basement floods, it would maybe cost $10,000 to fix it and with no flood history, he didn’t feel it was worth it to pay nearly $2,000 extra every year.
“I live up on Juniper Road at the top of the hill, so I’m not a big flood risk,” said Woodley. “But they don’t care about that. I’m sure it was a blanket policy.”
Quebec says that storms in 2017 and 2019 cost the province more than $1.4 billion, which, aside from impacts on infrastructure, public services and the economy, can also lead to “socio-sanitary impacts, affecting both health status and physical, psychological and social well-being.”
Quebec’s most recent floods
- In 2017, a historic flood affected 293 municipalities, including some in the Gatineau Hills, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,000 people.
- In 2019, a historic flood affected more than 240 municipalities, flooded thousands of homes, forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people and caused the closure of several roads. Municipalities in the Gatineau Hills were impacted.
- In 2019, the sudden rupture of a dike in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac led to the flooding of more than 2,600 properties and the evacuation of approximately 6,500 people.
- In 2023, flooding occurred in several regions, including the Hills. The failure of a protective wall in Baie-Saint-Paul caused a rapid rise in water levels, flooding nearly 300 homes and forcing the evacuation of more than 1,000 people.
