Liberal critic calls on Quebec to expand disaster compensation program

Quebec's Liberal party critic for housing and climate change is calling on the Legault government to expand its national disaster compensation program.

Laval MNA Virginie Dufour has been touring her constituency in the past week following major floods and said she's never had to deal with a disaster like this.

"It's like every household on the street has been affected by this," she said.

What makes it worse is that it was caused by sewer backups, meaning residents may not be covered unless they have private insurance.

Dufour has been calling on the Legault government to include damage caused by sewer backups in Quebec's disaster compensation program.

Currently, only homes flooded by bodies of water qualify for such aid.

"Most of the damages we had were not coming from the rain, it was sewage water. And so everything is contaminated. People are just getting bad news day after day," she said.

Dufour says the government has a duty to act like it did in the 2017 floods.

"We cannot abandon them. We were there for others. We should be there for them as well," she argued.

She's also calling for a strategy to prevent future disasters.

"We're going to need to have a government that will be there for cities and invest in infrastructure to adapt to climate change," she said.

During a news conference in Montreal with Public Security Minister François Bonnardel, Premier François Legault said the government would be more "flexible" with compensation.

"The main question is about compensation to people for their houses. Like François said, we'll be more flexible to receive the request from people because it's a very special situation of Debby, the Tornado, whatever," Legault said. "The storm caused a lot of damage so we want to be more flexible."

Residents can request government assistance by calling 1-888-643-AIDE (2433) Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. So far, 1,834 people have already called for help. More information is available on the government's website. 

According to Bonnardel, about 20 roads are still in need of repair after the major storm, down from 180 at the beginning of the week, and a total of 20 municipalities were affected.