As the province recovers from the seemingly annual tradition of heavy spring floods, Pierrefonds mayor Jim Beis feels that it’s time to start implementing long-term solutions to the problem.
Beis has approached the province about building permanent dikes that, according to him, would be both cost-efficient and keep homeowners from having to sell their properties.
Recently, premier Francois Legault said the province would offer homeowners up to $200,000 for their homes as an incentive to move away from high-risk areas.
After the 2017 floods, Pierrefonds built dikes that were made of natural materials like compacted soil and were backed by sandbags.
Those dikes have held up well this year as only around 50 homes in the borough suffered flooding, far fewer than the 700 of two years ago.
Despite that improvement, Beis looks at those natural dikes as only a stopgap measure.
“We’re the only ones who faced severe flooding in 2017 and have proven we can protect an area with the different resources we’ve put in place,” he said.
Pierrefonds is just one borough that relies on dikes for protection from the water.
Two weeks ago, 6,000 people fled the community of Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac after a dike failed.
The provincial government has promised that a new dike will be built for the area by next spring.
