Photo: Vintotal · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Ville-Marie are mild: low wildfire and earthquake risk, and 4.3% of area homes above the radon guideline
Wildfire is rare near Ville-Marie: 0.2% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.006% a year. NRCan expects $0.040 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Ville-Marie, near the typical $0.030. Ville-Marie grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Ville-Marie’s hazards
For Ville-Marie, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Ville-Marie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Ville-Marie: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Ville-Marie’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 69 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Ville-Marie has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Ville-Marie’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.006% a year keeps Ville-Marie in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The 5 km ring around Ville-Marie’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 15 km out.
Forest fuel covers 35% of the land close to Ville-Marie and 44% 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 514
Mistissini burns fastest in Quebec at 0.31% a year; Ville-Marie, at 0.006%, ranks 27th of 514.
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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Ville-Marie burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Ville-Marie
Flood studies whose area touches Ville-Marie, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Ville-Marie; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Ville-Marie; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
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 Ville-Marie.
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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Ville-Marie: $0.040 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.040 per $1,000, Ville-Marie’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.3 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Ville-Marie expects less, $0.040, and La Pocatière the most, $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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Ville-Marie (43%).
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 Ville-Marie 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).
4.3% of homes tested around Ville-Marie are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Abitibi-Temiscamingue health region: radon tests
A lower share than most: 4.3% of tested homes around Ville-Marie, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Ville-Marie (4.3%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Ville-Marie’s band, which holds 37%.
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.
Neighbouring homes in Ville-Marie can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Ville-Marie
Alerts for Ville-Marie 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Ville-Marie are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Ville-Marie
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ville-Marie | Low | $0.040 | 4.3% | None listed |
| Lorrainville 1,277 · 6.9 km | Low | $0.055 | 4.3% | None listed |
| Saint-Bruno-de-Guigues 1,197 · 15 km | Low | $0.034 | 4.3% | None listed |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Ville-Marie (low), with Lorrainville next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Ville-Marie faces
Practical steps for Ville-Marie’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Ville-Marie without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Ville-Marie until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Ville-Marie’s included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Ville-Marie.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Ville-Marie
How is Ville-Marie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Ville-Marie’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Ville-Marie flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Ville-Marie, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Ville-Marie at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Ville-Marie’s low band (0.2% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Ville-Marie?
The area’s survey found 4.3% of 69 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Ville-Marie.
How big is the earthquake risk in Ville-Marie?
About $0.040 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Ville-Marie.
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).