Montreal-area mayors say Quebec government has not delivered on promised flood relief

Montreal-area mayors want the Quebec government to deliver on promised flood relief to deal with the regular storms caused by climate change. (Peter McCabe, The Canadian Press)

A group of mayors from the Montreal region says the Quebec government has fallen short of its promise to increase financial aid for victims of torrential rain that hit the province earlier this month.

Last week, Quebec Premier François Legault suggested the province would expand its disaster financial assistance program after heavy flooding caused by the remnants of tropical storm Debby, which struck the province on Aug. 9 and 10.

During a visit to the hard-hit community of Louiseville on Aug. 16, Legault said the program could be temporarily expanded to include sewer backups, which had been excluded because they're typically covered by private insurance. The government program had only compensated homeowners for water damage caused by overland flooding.

But during a radio interview earlier this week, Public Security Minister François Bonnardel said only homes where flooding had "mixed causes," meaning that "the overflow of a river or waterway … led to a sewer backup," would be eligible. "We're not going to replace private insurers," he said.

The Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM), which represents 82 municipalities, says there has been no meaningful change to the program if sewer backups located far from waterways are not included.

As of Friday afternoon, the government website for the disaster relief program says that people affected by the torrential rain on Aug. 9 and 10 should submit a request for financial aid even if they're not sure whether they're eligible. But the site also says homeowners are only eligible for assistance for sewer backups "if a nearby waterway overflowed."

The Canadian Press obtained a screenshot of a message sent by the Public Security Department to municipalities that says, "if the flooding is caused by a sewer backup or water infiltration without the overflow of a nearby waterway, the disaster will not be covered by the (program.)"

The CMM is disappointed with the government's response. Earlier this week, the organization called on the province to adapt its program to the new reality of climate change. In a press release, the group requested that sewer backups caused by "urban runoff" during episodes of heavy rain be eligible for government aid.

"There has always been urban runoff, but we have to admit that the context of climate change will make these events more frequent and potentially more intense," said Nicolas Milot, interim director of ecological transition and innovation at the CMM.

Flooding is no longer tied to waterways, but instead can happen almost anywhere, Milot said.

Milot said the government program was designed to complement private insurance, which often doesn't cover overland flooding. The program filled a void, he said, but warned that many insurance policies won't cover the full cost of the damage caused by sewer backups during extreme events like tropical storm Debby.

He also said many people whose homes flooded this month had never experienced flooding before and may not have been fully insured against it. "Obviously, this was an exceptional event that generated a risk that, in the normal order of things, we were not used to seeing," Milot said. "So it was understandable that citizens did not take this flood coverage. But the consequences for them are dramatic."

A spokesperson for the Public Security Department said that any expansion to the aid program will involve "analyzing each individual case to find out the reasons for the overflow to determine whether the case is admissible or not."

Jean Savard, assistant deputy minister of public security, has also sent a letter to municipalities reminding them that the disaster assistance program "does not replace individual insurance policies."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2024.