Montreal suburb residents angered at new flood maps

West Island homeowners protest flood maps New flood zone maps have sparked concern in Pierrefonds, with many residents disputing their homes' inclusion in high-risk areas.

Over 100 homeowners attended a Pierrefonds-Roxboro meeting on Thursday night to learn more about the proposed flood maps for their Montreal borough.

Many are concerned about how suddenly being in a flood zone might impact their home value and residential taxes, in addition to their insurance rates and the ability to get a mortgage or resell.

The Quebec government began public consultations on flood management in June 2023, but the maps were only made public recently.

The consultations take into account previous floods in 2017, 2019 and 2023, as well as the expected effects of climate change.

The maps show that about 1,800 homes in the community are now considered to be in a flood zone. That is 70 per cent more than before.

The borough mayor and many residents doubt how valid the map is and say that anti-flood solutions have been suggested.

"There are certainly mitigating issues here that we can put some permanent infrastructure in place that we've been saying since 2017," said borough mayor Jim Beis. "We have some solutions, maybe not across the board, but there are things that we can do, and the government, the City of Montreal, both levels of government, have done nothing for us."

There is under a week to go until public consultations end on Oct. 17.

One resident said that in addition to questions about what homes are added to the map, there are also questions about some homes that are not on it.

"I have my doubts about the maps," said resident Robert Idsinga. "I went to look at the locations of certain homes that I know do flood, and they're actually not included in the flood zone. Certain homes of certain politicians are actually not included on the flood zone which is kind of interesting and then other areas that we absolutely know did flood in the big flooding are, again, not included. There's very big discrepencies there. There's problems with this."

Idsinga is involved with the class action efforts underway to challenge the maps.

The proposed new flood maps put around 77,000 Quebec homes in flood zones, compared to around 22,000 before.