Photo: TwoWild · CC BY-SA 2.0Roberts Creek has one of Canada’s highest earthquake risks: $0.38 a year per $1,000, 13 times the typical town’s
Wildfire is rare near Roberts Creek: 0.5% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.01% a year. Radon is lower than usual: 2.5% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Roberts Creek a grade of C+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Roberts Creek’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Roberts Creek: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Roberts Creek faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Roberts Creek: C+
The grade weighs Roberts Creek’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #195 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,824 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Roberts Creek: 0.1% within 5 km, 0.5% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Roberts Creek’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.01% of the land around Roberts Creek each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Forest fuel covers 79% of the land close to Roberts Creek and 86% across 25 km.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in British Columbia · highest of 255
In the upper half in British Columbia but far from Oliver (0.98%): Roberts Creek ranks 87th of 255, at 0.01% a year.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Roberts Creek stays low, with 92%.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
No flood study is listed for Roberts Creek
Flood studies whose area touches Roberts Creek, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Roberts Creek on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Roberts Creek.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Roberts Creek floods.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
High seismic risk in Roberts Creek: $0.38 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Roberts Creek loses $0.38, 12.8 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Roberts Creek’s $0.38 is close to the median in British Columbia, $0.36; Duncan is highest at $1.33.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Roberts Creek: 4.6% of them.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Roberts Creek’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Roberts Creek: 2.5% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the North Shore/Coast Garibaldi health region
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Roberts Creek’s area, at 2.5%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Roberts Creek (2.5%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Roberts Creek, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Roberts Creek only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Roberts Creek
Alerts for Roberts Creek come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Roberts Creek to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Roberts Creek
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roberts Creek | Low | $0.38 | 2.5% | None listed |
| Electoral Area E, Sunshine Coast 4,279 · 6.7 km | Low | $0.45 | 2.5% | None listed |
| Gibsons 5,090 · 8.6 km | Low | $0.48 | 2.5% | None listed |
| Electoral Area F, Sunshine Coast 2,691 · 11 km | Low | $0.22 | 2.5% | None listed |
| Sechelt 11,558 · 12 km | Low | $0.33 | 2.5% | None listed |
Roberts Creek’s low band tops its neighbours; Sechelt is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Roberts Creek faces
What to do about the hazards Roberts Creek faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Roberts Creek.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Roberts Creek’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Roberts Creek’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Roberts Creek takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Roberts Creek
Does Roberts Creek flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Roberts Creek’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How big is the earthquake risk in Roberts Creek?
Expected earthquake damage in Roberts Creek comes to $0.38 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Roberts Creek?
Around Roberts Creek, 81 survey homes were tested and 2.5% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Roberts Creek’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Roberts Creek C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Roberts Creek at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.5% of the land around Roberts Creek since 1986 (last in 2019); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).