Marc Demers announced the process Laval will use to set its flood zones at the last council meeting on November 3.

In the audience were several people representing 700 people whose homes lie within the official flood plain if changes aren’t made.

They waited four hours to hear about more meetings. Councillors will deposit the new law at a special council meeting on November 20. A public consultation will take place December 15. The city will approve the new law on December 18.

Many left furious.

 We question the consultative aspect of the consultation meeting being held on December 15 given the delay of only three days before the new law gets final ratification on December 18,” says their blog, Comité des citoyens de Laval Ouest.

After the law gets ratified by the city, Quebec’s environment minister will have another two months to make comments or ask for changes. If the province accepts Laval’s version of the new flood zone, it could go into effect as soon as March.

Note: This article appeared on page 9 of the Laval edition of The Suburban yesterday.

July 14, 2014: No new flood zone regulations yet

Despite their wishes, citizens’ hopes for new flood zones in Laval will not happen before next spring.

We have no authority to implement anything about Quebec’s flood zones; that rests with Quebec” said François Brochu, the public relations director of Mayor Marc Demers’ cabinet. “Our consultant says that the information that he’s collected so far indicates a very positive response, but we have no authority to implement anything yet.”

The consultant Brochu is referring to is Pierre Dupuis, who works for WSP Canada Inc. Laval’s executive committee provided WSP Canada Inc. a contract to re-evalute the water levels in lots 1 to 5 at their meeting on April 28, 2014. Brochu says the contract was worth $75,000.

Dupuis’ study isn’t quite finished, but he should complete his work soon. After that, the city has to change their regulations and submit them to Quebec for approval.

We can only begin implementing changes after we modify our regulations properly and have them approved by Quebec,” said Brochu. “The province will then have 60 days to give an opinion.”

The news is a blow for citizens who had been hoping to split land, build swimming pools and construct new buildings this summer.

They told us that they would have big news for us and that we would know on July 14,” said a citizen, who asked not to be named. “Anyone who wants to sell right now is out of luck. People are using the flood zone rules to bargain for lower prices on homes. The bank and the SHL are checking for those cases and they don’t accept them now.”

It’s for these citizens that we are working now,” said Brochu. “Last autumn, the Province of Quebec told us that ‘if you don’t change your zones to match our data, we’ll change them for you.’ We are doing it under pressure from the Minister of Environment.”

July 10: Laval to announce flood zone rules July 14

Laval’s new city council will announce changes to the flood plain rules at their July 14 meeting. Residents living in Laval-Ouest hope that their needs will be taken into consideration this time.

What we know from the city councillors is that they don’t know what the rules are going to be because the legal department is preparing them,” said a Laval-Ouest resident who doesn’t want his name in the paper. “They checked what happened in other cities and they’re trying to apply those rules.”

There’s a good chance that the new rules will allow swimming pools, fences and backyard sheds to be built, but it still won’t allow home extensions, garages or new buildings on lots in the area. So says a website set up by Comité des citoyennes de Laval Ouest.

That’s not good enough says our anonymous source. He thinks that Laval should refuse to apply the 2005 ministry of environment study just as Mayor Vaillancourt did from 2005 until he left office.

The Parti Quebecois were in then and they created the problem and they didn’t even think of what that would do to people,” said the resident, who is among 3,000 home owners affected by new flood plain zone rules. About a third of the lots now fall within a 20-year flood zone, while the others are in a 100 year flood zone.

There’s a dam built at the head of the Mille Iles River in 1976, and that dam does its job well,” he said. “The 2005 study doesn’t take the dam into consideration. That’s why reality is so different from their study. We never get water here. The last water we had was 1998 and a few streets had water on it. We’ve never claimed any money for water damage since 1976.”

The city of Laval has done their own study, but so far residents haven’t got a copy, which is something they’d like.

Laval is different from every other place and they are not using their right to have a particular case respected. We want them to make an exception to this rule for our neighbourhood.”

For more information about flooding, consult the Canadian flood map at http://globalfloodmap.org/Canada;

Note: This story appeared on page 3 of the Laval edition of the Suburban yesterday.