Photo: Harfang · CC BY-SA 3.0On hazards, Bonaventure comes out behind 86% of Canadian towns
Wildfire barely registers for Bonaventure, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Bonaventure as in most places, at $0.039 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is higher than usual: 25% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Bonaventure grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Bonaventure’s hazards
For Bonaventure, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Bonaventure faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Bonaventure: D
Seismic risk and radon set Bonaventure’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #433 of 507 in Quebec and #2,425 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Bonaventure: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Bonaventure’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Bonaventure, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Fire has stayed at least 15 km from Bonaventure’s homes since 1986.
Forest thickens with distance from Bonaventure: 68% of the land within 5 km, 83% 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 Quebec · highest of 513
Of the 513 towns in Quebec, 144 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Bonaventure among them; Mistissini leads at 0.31% 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Bonaventure 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.
Bonaventure is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Université du Québec à Rimouski
Flood studies whose area touches Bonaventure, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Bonaventure, Université du Québec à Rimouski’s from 2014, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bonaventure | Université du Québec à Rimouski | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Bonaventure is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Bonaventure’s homes are at risk.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Bonaventure: $0.039 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.
Bonaventure’s $0.039 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (1.3 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: Bonaventure’s $0.039 against a median of $0.14; La Pocatière has $0.48.
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 Bonaventure (45%).
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Bonaventure is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Bonaventure: 25% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Bonaventure’s area has 25%. Bonaventure doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Gaspesie - Iles-de-la-Madeleine health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Bonaventure’s area, at 25%, is above the median in Quebec (8.2%), and 3.4% 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.
One home in five or more tests over the guideline around Bonaventure; 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are in that band and 1.5% higher.
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.
Whatever Bonaventure’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Bonaventure
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Bonaventure; 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 Bonaventure 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 Bonaventure
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonaventure | Low | $0.039 | 25% | Yes |
| Saint-Siméon 1,254 · 8.2 km | Low | $0.033 | 25% | None listed |
| New Carlisle 1,331 · 11 km | Low | $0.035 | 25% | None listed |
| Paspébiac 3,132 · 16 km | Low | $0.034 | 25% | None listed |
| Caplan 1,961 · 16 km | Low | $0.030 | 25% | None listed |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Bonaventure (low), with Saint-Siméon next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bonaventure faces
Practical steps for Bonaventure’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 Bonaventure sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Bonaventure, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Bonaventure floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Bonaventure’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bonaventure
Is Bonaventure at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Bonaventure’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Bonaventure?
25% of the 174 homes Health Canada tested around Bonaventure topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Bonaventure’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Bonaventure grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bonaventure?
Expected earthquake damage in Bonaventure comes to $0.039 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Bonaventure flood?
Bonaventure’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).