By Tracey Arial
www.thesuburban.com
Despite their wishes, citizens’ hopes for new flood zones in Laval will not happen before next spring.
“We have no authority to implement anything about Quebec’s flood zones; that rests with Quebec,” said François Brochu, the public relations director of Mayor Marc Demers’ office. “Our consultant says that the information that he’s collected so far indicates a very positive response, but we have no authority to implement anything yet.”
The consultant Brochu is referring to is Pierre Dupuis, who works for WSP Canada Inc. Laval’s executive committee provided WSP Canada Inc. a contract to reevaluate the water levels in lots one to five at their meeting on April 28, 2014. Brochu said the contract was worth $75,000.
Dupuis’ study isn’t quite finished, but he should complete his work soon. After that, the city has to change their regulations and submit them to Quebec for approval.
“We can only begin implementing changes after we modify our regulations properly and have them approved by Quebec,” said Brochu. “The province will then have 60 days to give an opinion.”
The news is a blow for citizens who had been hoping to split land, build swimming pools and construct new buildings this summer.
“They told us that they would have big news for us and that we would know on July 14,” said a citizen, who asked not to be named. “Anyone who wants to sell right now is out of luck. People are using the flood zone rules to bargain for lower prices on homes. The bank and the SHL are checking for those cases and they don’t accept them now.”
“It’s for these citizens that we are working now,” said Brochu. “Last autumn, the Province of Quebec told us that ‘if you don’t change your zones to match our data, we’ll change them for you.’ We are doing it under pressure from the Environment Minister.”
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