Photo: Gorob · CC BY-SA 3.0High radon around Canning: 17% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Burn scars are few around Canning, with 1.6% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.05% a year). Seismic risk in Canning sits near the middle: $0.042 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Canning grades C− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Canning’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Canning: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Canning faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Canning grades C− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Canning’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
Little of the land around Canning has burned: 0% within 5 km, 1.6% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Canning’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.05% burned a year, Canning is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Fire has stayed at least 18 km from Canning’s homes since 1986.
Forest crowds in on Canning: 90% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, more than the 81% within 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 New Brunswick · highest of 61
Tracadie burns fastest in New Brunswick at 0.28% a year; Canning, at 0.05%, ranks 11th of 61.
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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Canning among them, though its rate is above zero; 7.5% rank higher.
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.
A flood study covers Canning, from Service New Brunswick - GeoNB: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Canning: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2020 study by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB covers Canning, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flood Mapping in New Brunswick and Updated Sea-Level Rise and Flooding Estimates for New Brunswick Coastal Sections 2020 | Service New Brunswick - GeoNB | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in New Brunswick: 93% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Canning is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Canning’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Canning $0.042 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.042 per $1,000, Canning’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.4 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Canning runs at $0.042 a year, near the $0.036 of the typical town in New Brunswick; St. Stephen has $0.16.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Canning (43%).
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).
The model counts damage to Canning’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
17% of homes tested around Canning are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Canning’s area, at 17%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places. Canning doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Region 3 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Canning’s area, at 17%, is close to the median in New Brunswick (20%); 7.1% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Canning sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Canning; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Canning
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Canning; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Canning, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Canning’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canning | Low | $0.042 | 17% | Yes |
| Minto 2,349 · 14 km | Low | $0.037 | 17% | Yes |
Canning’s low band tops its neighbours; Minto is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Canning faces
What to do about the hazards Canning 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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Canning is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Canning’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Canning’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Canning.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Canning
Is Canning at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 1.6% of the land within 25 km of Canning has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Is radon a problem in Canning?
In Health Canada’s survey, 17% of 112 homes tested in Canning’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Canning’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Canning’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Canning flood?
There is flood mapping for Canning on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Canning?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Canning $0.042 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).