Photo: Dicklyon · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Val-des-Monts: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 13% of tested homes
Little of the land around Val-des-Monts has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.089 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Val-des-Monts a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Val-des-Monts’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Val-des-Monts: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Val-des-Monts faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Val-des-Monts grades C− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Val-des-Monts’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #419 of 507 in Quebec and #2,408 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 63 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.
Few fires near Val-des-Monts: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Val-des-Monts’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Val-des-Monts’ 0.001% is in the low band.
19% of the land within 5 km of Val-des-Monts is forest fuel, close to the 16% 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
At 0.001% a year, Val-des-Monts ranks 136th of the 513 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.
Val-des-Monts is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
No flood study is listed for Val-des-Monts
Flood studies whose area touches Val-des-Monts, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Val-des-Monts on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Val-des-Monts has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Val-des-Monts.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Val-des-Monts $0.089 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.
Val-des-Monts’ $0.089 is about 3 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: Val-des-Monts’ $0.089 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.
Val-des-Monts sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 27% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Val-des-Monts’ figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Val-des-Monts: 13% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Val-des-Monts’ survey area reads 13% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Outaouais health region as a whole, not for Val-des-Monts alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Val-des-Monts (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 Val-des-Monts, 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.
The survey sampled homes around Val-des-Monts; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Val-des-Monts
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Val-des-Monts; 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. |
For fires near Val-des-Monts, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Val-des-Monts’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Val-des-Monts | Low | $0.089 | 13% | None listed |
| Des Vallées 3,575 · 9.9 km | Low | $0.12 | 13% | None listed |
| Cantley 12,291 · 12 km | Low | $0.080 | 13% | Yes |
| Du Moulin 30,364 · 14 km | Low | $0.12 | 13% | Yes |
| Rivière-Blanche 23,089 · 14 km | Low | $0.12 | 13% | Yes |
| La Cité 30,930 · 15 km | Low | $0.12 | 13% | Yes |
| Les Rapides 15,090 · 15 km | Low | $0.12 | 13% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Val-des-Monts (low); Des Vallées comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Val-des-Monts faces
Practical steps for Val-des-Monts’ 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
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, Val-des-Monts takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Val-des-Monts’.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Val-des-Monts’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Val-des-Monts.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Val-des-Monts
How big is the earthquake risk in Val-des-Monts?
Expected earthquake damage in Val-des-Monts comes to $0.089 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Val-des-Monts at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Val-des-Monts’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Val-des-Monts’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Val-des-Monts’ Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Val-des-Monts?
13% of the 63 homes Health Canada tested around Val-des-Monts topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Val-des-Monts flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Val-des-Monts (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).