Photo: P. Davignon · CC BY-SA 4.0Kanesatake is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal
Wildfire is rare near Kanesatake: 0% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.10 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 10% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Kanesatake a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Kanesatake’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Kanesatake: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Kanesatake faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Kanesatake grades C− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Kanesatake’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 78 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Kanesatake: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Kanesatake’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Kanesatake each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Kanesatake: 5.3% within 5 km and 4.5% 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 514
Mistissini has the highest burn rate in Quebec, 0.31% a year; around Kanesatake, as around 145 of the 514 towns, it rounds to zero.
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.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Kanesatake is among the many where the yearly burn rate rounds to zero.
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 Kanesatake, from Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Kanesatake, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Kanesatake is Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal’s, dated 2008; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montréal-Argenteuil-Deux-Montagnes-Vaudreuil-Soulanges | Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal | 2008 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Kanesatake is one of the 45% of towns in Quebec with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
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 Kanesatake’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.
High seismic risk in Kanesatake: $0.10 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.
Roughly 3.4 times the typical $0.030: Kanesatake’s $0.10 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Kanesatake’s $0.10 sits under the median in Quebec, $0.14, and well under La Pocatière’s $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 26% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Kanesatake.
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 loss is to Kanesatake’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Kanesatake: 10% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A higher share than most: 10% of tested homes around Kanesatake, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Kanesatake than in most towns in Quebec: 10% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 1.3% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Kanesatake, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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 Kanesatake only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Laurentides health region)
Weather and fire alerts for Kanesatake
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Kanesatake; 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 Kanesatake come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Kanesatake’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanesatake | Low | $0.10 | 10% | Yes |
| Oka 4,312 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.13 | 10% | Yes |
| Hudson 5,533 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Placide 1,751 · 9.0 km | Low | $0.17 | 10% | Yes |
| Saint-Lazare 22,895 · 9.4 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Vaudreuil-sur-le-Lac 1,340 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Joseph-du-Lac 7,391 · 10.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 10% | Yes |
The fire record around Hudson is a touch heavier than Kanesatake’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Kanesatake faces
Practical steps for Kanesatake’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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
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 Kanesatake 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; Kanesatake’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Kanesatake’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 Kanesatake.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kanesatake
Is radon a problem in Kanesatake?
The area’s survey found 10% of 78 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Kanesatake.
Does Kanesatake flood?
There is flood mapping for Kanesatake on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Kanesatake?
About $0.10 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Kanesatake.
How is Kanesatake’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Kanesatake C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Kanesatake at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Kanesatake’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2021) is short of the level that counts.
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).