Hazard risk in Mount Royal is lower than in 89% of Canadian towns
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Mount Royal: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Mount Royal sits near the middle: $0.030 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Mount Royal grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Mount Royal’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Mount Royal: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Mount Royal faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Mount Royal grades A for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Mount Royal’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #105 of 866 in Ontario and #417 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Mount Royal: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Mount Royal’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Mount Royal in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Homes in Mount Royal sit on open or built-up ground (0.4% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 6.6%.
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 Ontario · highest of 871
Near-zero burning puts Mount Royal with 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario, far below Sioux Lookout at 0.16%.
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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Mount Royal is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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 Mount Royal, from Toronto Regional Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Mount Royal: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2021 study by Toronto Regional Conservation Authority covers Mount Royal, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Floodline Consolidation | Toronto Regional Conservation Authority | 2021 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario: 69% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Mount Royal is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Mount Royal.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Mount Royal: $0.030 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Mount Royal’s $0.030 is the typical figure ($0.030): ordinary ground for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Mount Royal’s $0.030 against a median of $0.043; Alexandria has $0.21.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Middle of the pack: 48% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Mount Royal.
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 Mount Royal’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). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Brampton
0% of homes tested around Mount Royal are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Mount Royal’s area, at 0%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Peel Regional Health Unit, Mount Royal included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Ontario is 4% over 200 Bq/m³; around Mount Royal it is 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Mount Royal shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 Mount Royal; 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 Mount Royal
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Mount Royal; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Mount Royal come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Mount Royal
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Royal | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Vales of Castlemore 14,894 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Sandalwood East (mountainash) 21,801 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Wildfield 8,511 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Castlemore Estates 2,587 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Sandalwood West (sunny Meadow) 27,171 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Countryside 5,595 · 4.2 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
Vales of Castlemore (low) has the heaviest fire record of Mount Royal’s neighbours, and Mount Royal (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Mount Royal faces
Practical steps for Mount Royal’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Mount Royal sits in.
- 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 Mount Royal’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Mount Royal’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Mount Royal floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Mount Royal
How big is the earthquake risk in Mount Royal?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Mount Royal $0.030 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Mount Royal’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Mount Royal’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Mount Royal?
The area’s survey found 0% of 90 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Mount Royal.
Is Mount Royal at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Mount Royal (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
Does Mount Royal flood?
Mount Royal’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
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).