Photo: Richard Mc Neil · CC BY 3.0Pont-Viau faces more hazards than 93% of Canadian towns
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Pont-Viau: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.21 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 12% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Pont-Viau grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Pont-Viau’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Pont-Viau: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Pont-Viau faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Pont-Viau grades D for hazard risk
For Pont-Viau, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #485 of 507 in Quebec and #2,507 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.
Little of the land around Pont-Viau has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Pont-Viau’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Pont-Viau fire takes 0.001% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 13 km from Pont-Viau’s homes, none within 5 km.
Only 2.2% of the land within 25 km of Pont-Viau is forest fuel, and 0.2% close in.
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
Pont-Viau burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 513 towns in Quebec; the leader, Mistissini, reaches 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.
Pont-Viau is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Pont-Viau
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Pont-Viau: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Pont-Viau has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Pont-Viau.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Pont-Viau.
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.”
Shaking is Pont-Viau’s costliest hazard: $0.21 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Pont-Viau’s $0.21 is about 6.9 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Pont-Viau shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Laval.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: Pont-Viau’s $0.21 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.
Only 7.9% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Pont-Viau.
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 Pont-Viau’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).
12% of homes tested around Pont-Viau are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Laval health region
Pont-Viau’s area, at 12%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Pont-Viau (12%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 0.9% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 10–20% band holds 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, Pont-Viau among them; 4.6% rank 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Pont-Viau only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Pont-Viau
Alerts for Pont-Viau 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. |
Evacuation orders for Pont-Viau come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Pont-Viau’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pont-Viau | Low | $0.21 | 12% | None listed |
| Laval-des-Rapides 41,971 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | None listed |
| Sault-au-Récollet 25,464 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| La Visitation 17,166 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Nicolas-Viel 19,361 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Ouest (Montréal-Nord) 23,373 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Sulpice 18,557 · 4.0 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
La Visitation burns a little more than Pont-Viau, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Pont-Viau faces
Practical steps for Pont-Viau’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Pont-Viau without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Pont-Viau until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Pont-Viau’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Pont-Viau’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Pont-Viau
How big is the earthquake risk in Pont-Viau?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Pont-Viau $0.21 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Pont-Viau at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Pont-Viau’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.
Does Pont-Viau flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Pont-Viau (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Pont-Viau?
12% of the 107 homes Health Canada tested around Pont-Viau topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Pont-Viau’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Pont-Viau grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
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).