Photo: Veillg1 · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazard risk in La Malbaie is higher than in 87% of Canadian towns
The burn rate around La Malbaie is 0.08% a year (3.3% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.35 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. About as many homes carry radon around La Malbaie as elsewhere, 8.8% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives La Malbaie a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about La Malbaie’s hazards
For La Malbaie, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What La Malbaie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
La Malbaie grades D for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for La Malbaie, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #434 of 507 in Quebec and #2,427 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Some fire around La Malbaie: 3.3% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.2% within 5 km
Past fire around La Malbaie’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.08% of the land a year, La Malbaie’s burn rate is moderate; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around La Malbaie: 75% within 5 km, 77% 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
At 0.08% a year, La Malbaie is near the top in Quebec: 5th of 513, behind Mistissini (0.31%).
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.
Only 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns share the moderate band with La Malbaie, and 2.1% sit above it.
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.
La Malbaie is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for La Malbaie: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Gouvernement du Québec studied flooding in an area that includes La Malbaie (1990); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malbaie | Gouvernement du Québec | 1990 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; La Malbaie is one of them.
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 La Malbaie 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Shaking is La Malbaie’s costliest hazard: $0.35 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.35 per $1,000, La Malbaie carries roughly 11.6 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: La Malbaie’s $0.35 against a median of $0.14, with La Pocatière highest at $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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than La Malbaie: 5.6% 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).
For La Malbaie the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around La Malbaie: 8.8% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Around La Malbaie, 8.8% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. La Malbaie doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Capitale-Nationale health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in Quebec at 8.8% over 200 Bq/m³ (8.2% is the median), the area around La Malbaie had 2.5% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
La Malbaie is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have 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.
Neighbouring homes in La Malbaie can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in La Malbaie
Alerts for La Malbaie 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near La Malbaie are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around La Malbaie
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Malbaie | Moderate | $0.35 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Clermont 3,117 · 7.2 km | Moderate | $0.37 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Aimé-des-Lacs 1,169 · 13 km | Moderate | $0.29 | 8.8% | None listed |
The fire record around Saint-Aimé-des-Lacs is a touch heavier than La Malbaie’s, but the band is the same: moderate (here moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what La Malbaie faces
What to do about the hazards La Malbaie faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- 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.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 La Malbaie.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for La Malbaie’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For La Malbaie, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for La Malbaie is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in La Malbaie
How is La Malbaie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
La Malbaie’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does La Malbaie flood?
There is flood mapping for La Malbaie on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in La Malbaie?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.8% of 160 homes tested in La Malbaie’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is La Malbaie at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 3.3% of the land within 25 km of La Malbaie has burned since 1986, the last in 2020, a moderate band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in La Malbaie?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in La Malbaie $0.35 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).