Photo: Jeangagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0Saint-Sauveur is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Around Saint-Sauveur, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.14 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 8.8% of homes tested in Saint-Sauveur’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Saint-Sauveur grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Sauveur’s hazards
For Saint-Sauveur, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Sauveur faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Sauveur grades C− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Saint-Sauveur’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #294 of 507 in Quebec and #2,256 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Saint-Sauveur has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Saint-Sauveur’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Saint-Sauveur each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Saint-Sauveur’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 18 km away.
Homes in Saint-Sauveur sit on open or built-up ground (0.3% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 21%.
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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Saint-Sauveur, as for 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list 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%), Saint-Sauveur 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.
Saint-Sauveur is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint-Sauveur: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Gouvernement du Québec holds the flood mapping that covers Saint-Sauveur (1991), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| CUQ | Gouvernement du Québec | 1991 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Saint-Sauveur among them, below the 58% across Canada.
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 Saint-Sauveur.
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 Saint-Sauveur $0.14 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 4.6 times the typical $0.030: Saint-Sauveur’s $0.14 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Saint-Sauveur ($0.14) matches the middle in Quebec ($0.14), far from La Pocatière’s $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.
Saint-Sauveur sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 20% 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 Saint-Sauveur.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Data for earthquake risk covers the city of Québec
Radon about average around Saint-Sauveur: 8.8% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
The survey area of Saint-Sauveur reads 8.8%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in Quebec at 8.8% over 200 Bq/m³ (8.2% is the median), the area around Saint-Sauveur had 2.5% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Saint-Sauveur, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are higher.
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.
A low area share in Saint-Sauveur doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Capitale-Nationale health region)
Where to get warnings in Saint-Sauveur
Alerts for Saint-Sauveur 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 Saint-Sauveur 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)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Sauveur
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Sauveur | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Montcalm 13,572 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Roch 8,381 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Jean-Baptiste 8,882 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Vanier 13,494 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Sacrement 10,650 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Vieux-Limoilou 14,347 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
Montcalm (low) has the heaviest fire record of Saint-Sauveur’s neighbours, and Saint-Sauveur (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Sauveur faces
Practical steps for Saint-Sauveur’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. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Saint-Sauveur’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint-Sauveur, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Saint-Sauveur sits in.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Saint-Sauveur floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Sauveur
Is Saint-Sauveur at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Sauveur’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Sauveur?
The area’s survey found 8.8% of 160 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint-Sauveur.
How is Saint-Sauveur’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Sauveur’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Sauveur?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Saint-Sauveur’s buildings lose $0.14 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Saint-Sauveur flood?
Saint-Sauveur’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
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).