Talks on spring floods scheduled

Quebec will be holding public consultations Monday in areas touched by spring flooding.

The spring floods affected 5,300 homes in 278 municipalities. Between 500 to 800 of those were either destroyed or deemed uninhabitable. More than 4,000 Quebecers were evacuated. In the Montreal area, severely affected regions include PierrefondsRoxboro, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Île-Bizard-Ste-Geneviève, SteAnne-de-Bellevue and Senneville.

Seven weeks after the floods, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal led by its musical director Kent Nagano, held a free concert at Pierrefonds city hall in support of flood victims. The June 29 concert hit just the right note to ease morale, residents of Pierrefonds-Roxboro told the Montreal Gazette, but many residents said they feel frustrated by the city and the provincial government’s slow move to help them.

The goal of Monday’s public meetings is to hear from individuals and organizations on the government’s proposal to create a special intervention area in zones prone to flooding. The proposal also aims to establish urban planning rules to apply in specific zones.

Most meetings are scheduled for 7 p.m. For floods affecting Montreal, the hearings will be held at Holiday Inn Pointe-Claire, 6700 Trans-Canada Hwy. For the Laval area, it will be at the Château Royal Convention Halls, 3500 Souvenir Blvd. In the Montérégie, it will be Collège Bourget, 65 St-Pierre St., Rigaud.

For the complete schedule, go to the Quebec government website, mamot.gouv.qc.ca.