Photo: Minoumi · CC BY 3.0Matane faces more hazards than 86% of Canadian towns
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Matane’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.078 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). More homes than usual carry radon here, 14% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Matane grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Matane’s hazards
For Matane, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Matane faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Matane: D
Two inputs always count for Matane, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #431 of 507 in Quebec and #2,423 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.
Little of the land around Matane has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Matane’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Matane’s 0.000% is in the low band.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Matane’s homes came within 8.4 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel covers 48% of the land close to Matane and 73% across 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
Little or nothing burns around Matane in a typical year; 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec share that, and Mistissini leads at 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%), Matane 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 Matane (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Matane, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Matane, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 1995, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matane | Gouvernement du Québec | 1995 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Matane has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Matane’s homes are at risk.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Matane $0.078 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Matane loses $0.078, 2.6 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: Matane’s $0.078 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: 28% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Matane.
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 Matane 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).
14% of homes tested around Matane are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 14% over the guideline, the area around Matane beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Matane alone, so this card uses the figure for the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Matane than in most towns in Quebec: 14% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 1.8% 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 Matane, 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 Matane, 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 Matane
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Matane; 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 Matane, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Matane
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matane | Low | $0.078 | 14% | Yes |
| Sainte-Félicité 1,053 · 14 km | Low | $0.070 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Ulric 1,658 · 14 km | Low | $0.081 | 14% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Sainte-Félicité (low), still no more than Matane (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Matane faces
What to do about the hazards Matane faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Matane 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 Matane.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Matane, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Matane’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Matane
Is Matane at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Matane since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Matane?
Expected earthquake damage in Matane comes to $0.078 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Matane flood?
There is flood mapping for Matane on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Matane?
Around Matane, 171 survey homes were tested and 14% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Matane’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Matane 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).