Quebec is taking steps to get municipalities across the province prepared for floods and other natural disasters.

Following 2017's disastrous spring where 6,000 homes were affected by floods along rivers across Quebec, the province is going to force municipalities to have plans ready for the next time disaster strikes.

Only 30 per cent of cities and towns have prepared plans for what to do in the event of flooding, and the province believes that is no longer acceptable.

Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux said the province is going to help by providing municipalities $24 million to create or update their flood plans.

Last year's flooding also revealed that Quebec did not have an up-to-date map of flood zones in the province, so it will spend $20 million to correct that.

Right now only one third of Quebec's municipalities have an emergency action plan.

Pierrfonds-Roxboro is one of them and says it has been working to improve it.

“This is what we’ve been doing, ongoing since the last flood. We’ve purchased a lot of equipment to deal with it should we have to react differently,” said Borough Mayor Jim Beis

As promised months ago, Coiteux said the public security ministry is also going to simplify the claim process for flood victims.

Last year was an exceptional situation where 6,000 flood claims, whereas normally only 100 households make flood claims each year.

Coiteux said because of that situation in many cases claims were being handled by trainees.

 

“We had to hire more people, which was the responsible thing to do. But the people we hired had to be trained, so in some cases, and I fully understand their frustration, they had to go through different persons being in charge of their file, which is not what we hope for,” he said.

He said while a lot of money has been handed out, he sympathizes with those who have to wait until warm weather for work to be completed and for their final payouts to arrive.

"We're putting all the efforts into making sure they receive all the financial compensation they have a right to receive," said Coiteux.

"We already handed out over $135 million to the victims of the last spring floods. It compares to $20 million, $28 million in a normal year, so a major effort has been deployed to ensure they could be compensated as quickly as possible."

Coiteux said he plans to hire more permanent employees and have more people able to stay in affected areas the next time a disaster occurs.

About 100 families are still living in temporary accommodations following last year's floods.