Photo: daryl_mitchell from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Hazard risk in Central Business District is lower than in 91% of Canadian towns
Fire seldom reaches Central Business District: since 1986, 0.6% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.01% a year). Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.006 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is about average around Central Business District: 6.6% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Central Business District grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Central Business District’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Central Business District: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Central Business District faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Central Business District grades A for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Central Business District with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #9 of 104 in Saskatchewan and #299 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 76 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Central Business District: 0% within 5 km, 0.6% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Central Business District’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Central Business District burns at 0.01% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 22 km from Central Business District’s homes, none within 5 km.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Central Business District: forest fuel is 0% within 5 km and 0% 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 Saskatchewan · highest of 104
At 0.01% a year, Central Business District is near the top in Saskatchewan: 24th of 104, behind La Loche (1.94%).
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 Central Business District 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.
Water Security Agency has mapped flooding for Central Business District (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Central Business District, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Central Business District is Water Security Agency’s, dated 2024; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Saskatoon Flood Mapping Study | Water Security Agency | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Central Business District is one of the 55% of towns in Saskatchewan 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.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Central Business District’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Central Business District just $0.006 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.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Central Business District’s $0.006 is low for Canada.
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Saskatoon, Central Business District included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Saskatchewan: Central Business District’s $0.006 sits by the median of $0.006, while Weyburn reaches $0.033.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Central Business District is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 88% of the 2,611 towns 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 Central Business District’s 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).
Some radon around Central Business District: 6.6% of area 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 Saskatoon RHA
Around Central Business District, 6.6% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Saskatchewan is 9.1% over 200 Bq/m³; around Central Business District it is 6.6%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Central Business District is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have more.
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 survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Central Business District can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Central Business District
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Central Business District; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Central Business District come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Central Business District
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Business District | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| City Park 3,827 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| Grosvenor Park 6,240 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| Caswell Hill 2,573 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| Haultain 6,126 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| Westmount 2,872 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
| Buena Vista 5,777 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.006 | 6.6% | Yes |
Grosvenor Park burns a little more than Central Business District, 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 Central Business District faces
What to do about the hazards Central Business District faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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
- 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 Central Business District.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Central Business District’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Central Business District takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Central Business District’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Central Business District
Does Central Business District flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Central Business District; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Central Business District?
Expected earthquake damage in Central Business District comes to $0.006 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Central Business District?
Around Central Business District, 76 survey homes were tested and 6.6% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Central Business District at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.6% of the land around Central Business District since 1986 (last in 2023); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Central Business District’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Central Business District 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).