While the Quebec government continues its work on a new map of flooding areas, the questions are multiplying. Several of them relate to the financial impacts of this new regulatory framework. “We think of the owners of the residences concerned, but also of insurance companies and municipalities,” said Elaine Després. The associate professor and coordinator of the Quebec Intersectoral Inrsectoral Network (RIISQ) coorganizes the Sauvez La Planet symposium!: Risk mapping and the financial management of floods (May 8 and 9) with Steffen Lajoie, scientific advisor to RIISQ, MANEL DJEMEL, director, development and partnerships, at RIISQ, and EVA CIRNU.
The theme of the conference was developed with the professor of the Mathiematics Department Mathieu Boudreault and the doctoral student in environmental sciences Bernard Deschamps, who have published on the subject in recent years.
The first day of the conference will be devoted more specifically to the challenges of the financial management of floods and to the potential impacts of the application of the new mapping of flood zones. Bernard Deschamps will be the first to speak with a presentation entitled “Floods: towards a financial contribution from municipalities”. It will be followed by two representatives of the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM), Nicolas Milot and Foucauld Thomasset, who will look at the management of the consequences of a change in regulatory regime on flood zones.
A round table on the challenges of the financial management of floods, led by Mathieu Boudreault, will bring together Pierre Babinsky, director of communications and public affairs at the Canada Insurance Office, Alain Lessard, Executive Consultant at Intact, and Philip Paradis, Director of Financial Aid to Individuals and Businesses – General Directorate of Recovery at the Ministry of Public Security in Quebec.
The last round table of the first day will focus on the potential impacts of the application of the new mapping of flood zones. Hosted by Bernard Deschamps, she will bring together Alexandre Lambert, managing director of the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Michel Leclerc, hydrologist at the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges, and Yvon Rudolphe, lecturer in the Department of Strategy, Social and Environmental Responsibility of ESG UQAM.
“The second day will extend the theme and will present a selection of research projects aimed at better understanding the systemic risks linked to floods, in an intersectoral approach,” announces Steffen Lajoie.
A round table relating to good practices of intersecutoriality in the research on floods will close the conference. The director of the RIISQ, the professor of the Department of Geography Philippe Gachon, will participate in the company of Geneviève Bordeleau (INRS), Nicolas Milot (CMM), Ann-Sophie Simard (UQAC) and Nathalie St-Amour (UQO).
