Photo: Gordalmighty · CC BY-SA 3.0Saint-Valère is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire barely registers for Saint-Valère, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.001% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.10 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Saint-Valère a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Saint-Valère’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Valère: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Valère faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Valère grades A− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Valère’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
Little of the land around Saint-Valère has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Valère’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Saint-Valère burns at 0.001% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Saint-Valère’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 11 km away.
Within 5 km of Saint-Valère, 11% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 20%.
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
At 0.001% a year, Saint-Valère ranks 136th of the 514 towns in Quebec; 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Saint-Valère among them, though its rate is above zero; 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-Valère is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Valère, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Saint-Valère, the newest Gouvernement du Québec’s from 2006, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Victoriaville | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
| St-Valère | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Saint-Valère is one of the 45% of towns in Quebec with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Saint-Valère floods.
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-Valère $0.10 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.
Saint-Valère’s $0.10 is about 3.4 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: Saint-Valère’s $0.10 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 25% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Saint-Valère.
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).
The model counts damage to Saint-Valère’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Saint-Valère: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Fewer homes than usual test high around Saint-Valère: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Saint-Valère’s area, at 0%, is below the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Saint-Valère with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Saint-Valère as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Valère
Alerts for Saint-Valère 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 Saint-Valère to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Saint-Valère’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Valère | Low | $0.10 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Albert 1,744 · 6.9 km | Low | $0.10 | 0% | None listed |
| Victoriaville 49,863 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Christophe-d'Arthabaska 3,307 · 12 km | Low | $0.054 | 0% | Yes |
| Warwick 4,939 · 14 km | Low | $0.066 | 0% | None listed |
| Sainte-Eulalie 1,056 · 15 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton 1,647 · 15 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | Yes |
Saint-Valère’s low band tops its neighbours; Saint-Albert is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Valère faces
Practical steps for Saint-Valère’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
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Saint-Valère takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Saint-Valère’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Saint-Valère’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Saint-Valère.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Valère
Does Saint-Valère flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Saint-Valère; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Valère?
0% of the 58 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Valère topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Saint-Valère at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Valère’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Valère?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Valère comes to $0.10 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Saint-Valère’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Valère A−, 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).