Photo: Jeangagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazard risk in Sainte-Rose is higher than in 93% of Canadian towns
Wildfire isn’t Sainte-Rose’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.001% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.21 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, 12% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Sainte-Rose a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Sainte-Rose’s hazards
For Sainte-Rose, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sainte-Rose faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Sainte-Rose: D
Seismic risk and radon set Sainte-Rose’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #485 of 507 in Quebec and #2,507 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.
Wildfire is rare near Sainte-Rose: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sainte-Rose’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.001% of the land around Sainte-Rose each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Sainte-Rose’s homes came within 5.5 km, never inside 5 km.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Sainte-Rose: forest fuel is 0.2% within 5 km and 3.9% 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
Sainte-Rose 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.
Some fire is mapped around Sainte-Rose, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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 Sainte-Rose, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Sainte-Rose, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2006 study by Gouvernement du Québec covers Sainte-Rose, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moulins-Thérèse-De-Blainville-Deux-Montagnes-Laval | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Sainte-Rose is one of 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 Sainte-Rose.
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 Sainte-Rose: $0.21 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 6.9 times the typical $0.030: Sainte-Rose’s $0.21 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year; Sainte-Rose expects $0.21, and La Pocatière $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 Sainte-Rose: 7.9% 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 Sainte-Rose 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). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Laval)
12% of homes tested around Sainte-Rose are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Laval health region
Sainte-Rose’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 Sainte-Rose (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.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Sainte-Rose, 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Sainte-Rose, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Sainte-Rose
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Sainte-Rose; 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 Sainte-Rose 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 Sainte-Rose’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Rose | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
| Auteuil 27,843 · 4.0 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
| Rosemère 14,198 · 4.2 km | Low | $0.16 | 10% | Yes |
| Vimont 31,166 · 4.5 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | None listed |
| Fabreville 48,457 · 4.9 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
| Boisbriand 29,830 · 5.3 km | Low | $0.20 | 10% | Yes |
| Le Boisé Champêtre 37,891 · 5.5 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Fabreville (low), still no more than Sainte-Rose (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sainte-Rose faces
Practical steps for Sainte-Rose’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Sainte-Rose’s included.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Sainte-Rose is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Sainte-Rose.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Sainte-Rose.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sainte-Rose
How big is the earthquake risk in Sainte-Rose?
Expected earthquake damage in Sainte-Rose comes to $0.21 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Sainte-Rose flood?
There is flood mapping for Sainte-Rose on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Sainte-Rose?
The area’s survey found 12% of 107 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Sainte-Rose.
Is Sainte-Rose at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Sainte-Rose’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How is Sainte-Rose’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Sainte-Rose D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).