Photo: François Lambert · CC BY-SA 3.0L'Avenir faces few natural hazards: little fire nearby, low seismic risk, radon over the guideline in 0% of tested homes
Around L'Avenir, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.061 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives L'Avenir a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about L'Avenir’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for L'Avenir: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What L'Avenir faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in L'Avenir: A−
For L'Avenir, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 58 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near L'Avenir: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around L'Avenir’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps L'Avenir in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Fire has stayed at least 15 km from L'Avenir’s homes since 1986.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around L'Avenir: 16% within 5 km, 19% 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 L'Avenir, 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), L'Avenir 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.
No flood study is listed for L'Avenir
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for L'Avenir: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for L'Avenir, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches L'Avenir; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
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 L'Avenir.
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 L'Avenir’s costliest hazard: $0.061 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
L'Avenir’s $0.061 is about 2 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: L'Avenir’s $0.061 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 29% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than L'Avenir.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in L'Avenir’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around L'Avenir: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
A lower share than most: 0% of tested homes around L'Avenir, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around L'Avenir than in most towns in Quebec: 0% against 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: L'Avenir shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 L'Avenir only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Weather and fire alerts for L'Avenir
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for L'Avenir; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around L'Avenir, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around L'Avenir
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L'Avenir | Low | $0.061 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Félix-de-Kingsey 1,550 · 7.5 km | Low | $0.071 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Lucien 1,941 · 12 km | Low | $0.099 | 0% | None listed |
| Durham-Sud 1,041 · 13 km | Low | $0.067 | 0% | None listed |
| Wickham 2,745 · 15 km | Low | $0.10 | 0% | None listed |
| Richmond 3,419 · 17 km | Low | $0.056 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Cleveland 1,624 · 18 km | Low | $0.041 | 7.3% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Saint-Félix-de-Kingsey (low), still no more than L'Avenir (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what L'Avenir faces
Practical steps for L'Avenir’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; L'Avenir’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 L'Avenir.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for L'Avenir is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around L'Avenir’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in L'Avenir
How big is the earthquake risk in L'Avenir?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in L'Avenir $0.061 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does L'Avenir flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers L'Avenir (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is L'Avenir at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: L'Avenir’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.
How is L'Avenir’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
L'Avenir’s Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in L'Avenir?
0% of the 58 homes Health Canada tested around L'Avenir topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).