Photo: Misspixels (Isabelle Gagné) · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Val-David: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
Fire seldom reaches Val-David: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.066 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. More homes than usual carry radon here, 10% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Val-David grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Val-David’s hazards
For Val-David, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Val-David faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Val-David: C
Seismic risk and radon set Val-David’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #154 of 507 in Quebec and #2,101 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 78 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.
Wildfire is rare near Val-David: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Val-David’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Val-David at 0.001% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
More forest grows near Val-David’s homes (52% within 5 km) than across 25 km (36%).
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
Val-David burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 513 towns in Quebec; the leader, 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Val-David 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Val-David (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Val-David, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Val-David, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 2009, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| St-agathe-des-Monts | Gouvernement du Québec | 2009 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Val-David is one of them.
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 Val-David’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 Val-David $0.066 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.
Roughly 2.2 times the typical $0.030: Val-David’s $0.066 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Val-David’s $0.066 sits under the median in Quebec, $0.14, and well under 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.
Val-David sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 29% 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 Val-David.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
10% of homes tested around Val-David are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A higher share than most: 10% of tested homes around Val-David, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Val-David (10%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 1.3% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Val-David sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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.
Whatever Val-David’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Laurentides health region)
Where to get warnings in Val-David
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Val-David; 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 Val-David, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Val-David’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Val-David | Low | $0.066 | 10% | Yes |
| Val-Morin 3,226 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.076 | 10% | None listed |
| Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts 12,154 · 6.6 km | Low | $0.074 | 10% | Yes |
| Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides 1,651 · 8.4 km | Low | $0.073 | 10% | None listed |
| Sainte-Adèle 15,216 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.072 | 10% | Yes |
| Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson 3,842 · 11 km | Low | $0.083 | 10% | None listed |
| Saint-Adolphe-d'Howard 3,974 · 14 km | Low | $0.076 | 10% | None listed |
Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson burns a little more than Val-David, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Val-David faces
Practical steps for Val-David’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?
- 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 Val-David is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Val-David’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’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 Val-David.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Val-David, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Val-David
Is Val-David at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Val-David’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How is Val-David’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Val-David’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Val-David?
Expected earthquake damage in Val-David comes to $0.066 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Val-David flood?
There is flood mapping for Val-David on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Val-David?
The area’s survey found 10% of 78 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Val-David.
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).