Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazard risk in Maniwaki is higher than in 89% of Canadian towns
Around Maniwaki, 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 $0.13 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). More homes than usual carry radon here, 13% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Maniwaki a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Maniwaki’s hazards
For Maniwaki, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Maniwaki faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Maniwaki grades D for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Maniwaki’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #468 of 507 in Quebec and #2,468 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 63 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Maniwaki: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Maniwaki’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Maniwaki burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Maniwaki’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 8.0 km away.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Maniwaki: 38% within 5 km, 39% 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
To three decimals the burn rate around Maniwaki is zero, as for 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec, while 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Maniwaki 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Maniwaki (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Maniwaki, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Gouvernement du Québec studied flooding in an area that includes Maniwaki (1978); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farmers-Hull | Gouvernement du Québec | 1978 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Maniwaki is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Maniwaki to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Maniwaki’s costliest hazard: $0.13 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 4.2 times the typical $0.030: Maniwaki’s $0.13 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Quebec: Maniwaki’s $0.13 sits by the median of $0.14, while La Pocatière reaches $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.
Maniwaki sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 23% are higher.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Maniwaki.
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 Maniwaki: 13% of area homes were over the 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 Outaouais health region
Maniwaki’s survey area reads 13% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Maniwaki (13%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 4.8% 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 Maniwaki, 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.
Neighbouring homes in Maniwaki 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 Maniwaki
Alerts for Maniwaki 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Maniwaki to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Maniwaki’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maniwaki | Low | $0.13 | 13% | Yes |
| Kitigan Zibi 1,261 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.099 | 13% | Yes |
| Déléage 2,047 · 4.2 km | Low | $0.094 | 13% | Yes |
| Messines 1,691 · 15 km | Low | $0.087 | 13% | None listed |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Maniwaki (low), with Kitigan Zibi next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Maniwaki faces
Practical steps for Maniwaki’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, Maniwaki’s included.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Maniwaki without grading them.
- 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 Maniwaki.
- 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 Maniwaki until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Maniwaki
How big is the earthquake risk in Maniwaki?
Expected earthquake damage in Maniwaki comes to $0.13 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Maniwaki flood?
A flood study covers Maniwaki on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is Maniwaki’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Maniwaki grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Maniwaki at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Maniwaki’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Maniwaki?
The area’s survey found 13% of 63 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Maniwaki.
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).