The mayor of Saint-Urbain, Claudette Simard, felt “very alone” in the face of the major floods of May 2023 and had the impression that “there was only one for Baie-Saint-Paul”.
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The elected official was back in the witness box on Friday, on the occasion of the last day devoted to recommendations and possible solutions to the public inquiry into the drowning of two volunteer firefighters in the Gouffre River on May 1 2023.
“I would tell you that I, as mayor, felt very alone in the face of the event of 1er May,” said M.me Simard.
Coroner’s lawyer Andrée Kronström sought to find out if the Municipality received support “a posteriori”.
“I can’t tell you that I had support from the Ministry of Public Security,” she said.
This was probably present alongside the fire department or general management, “but for me, I’m very honest, no,” she explained.
Lack of support
“In terms of civil security, I have the impression that we, in Saint-Urbain, were apart. […] There were only ones for Baie-Saint-Paul. […] That’s the feeling I had.”
She was participating in a meeting with the Prime Minister in Baie-Saint-Paul when she learned on May 3 that the bodies of the firefighters had been found.
“I would have liked to have been accompanied by management, whatever, to support me and then help me with communications, to encourage me, to tell us what we should do because I didn’t have what it took,” she continued, adding that she “still has difficulty accepting that.”
Fortunately, she said, people from the Quebec Association of Fire Safety Managers, the Sûreté du Québec and other municipalities raised their hands to help her.
She acknowledged that she herself could have sought help, for example from the Fédération québécoise des municipalities, but stressed that she was at that moment “quite in a state of shock”.
She specified that her administration will “work very hard” to enhance the preparedness of her municipality in civil security and that until further notice “Saint-Urbain will not carry out nautical rescues”.
“We’ve already lost two firefighters, I don’t ever want that to happen again.”
The municipality is, among other things, in the process of revising its Municipal Civil Security Plan. According to M.me Simard, the consolidation of municipal fire safety services could be an avenue to consider, but there is resistance on this plan.
In his experience, these services “are like in a cocoon” and “they do not want to share a fire department with other municipalities”.
Limited resources
Before her, the general director of Saint-Urbain, Martin Guérin, once again raised the limited resources of small municipal administrations.
According to him, the biggest difficulty is responding to a “multi-site” disaster as was the case 1er may.
“For me, it’s the image [du] torture of the last straw. I still find it a bit hypocritical at the moment. There are all the time more and more responsibilities, more and more obligations falling to municipalities,” he said, explaining that this risks leading to mergers.
Regarding the danger of flooding, we must find ways to better communicate to the population the state of the situation and to “intervene upstream” since currently the assessment is rather “blind”. he explained.
As has been the case for several days, no representative of the two bereaved families attended the hearings.
The public inquiry in brief
- 10 days of hearing since April 15, 2024 at the La Malbaie courthouse
- Only one day of hearing remaining, July 5, for representations from interested parties (in particular the families of the victims and the municipality of Saint-Urbain)
- Nearly sixty witnesses
What they said
“I really liked it when [l’Organisme de bassins versants Charlevoix-Montmorency] said that “we could intervene upstream”. Currently, we do it a little, but we do it blindly. They say it predicts 75 mm of rain, “get out of your house, there may be a danger, we don’t know, but we’re doing it as a preventative measure.”
– Martin Guérin, general manager of Saint-Urbain
“Let’s say it’s a year later and I’m still having a hard time accepting everything that happened.”
– Claudette Simard, mayor of Saint-Urbain
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