The municipality of Mansfield et Pontefract has reached out to the provincial government and submitted an updated flood map that includes the areas that were flooded in 2019.

The updated map was sent in response to the ministry of the environment’s decision to re-draw the flood zones across the province despite a lack of consultation with municipalities and taxpayers.

The original flood map was released by the ministry on June 17, much to the surprise of both municipal staff and residents across the province.

The province had originally planned to host information sessions across the province to explain the new flood map. However, once the government saw the near universal opposition to the new maps, it changed course and turned the meetings into consultations so residents could give feedback.

More than 400 people filled the Campbell’s Bay RA for the Pontiac’s consultation on July 4.

Since sending its updated flood map, which includes the areas affected in 2019, Mansfield et Pontefract has received an updated version from the province that more closely matches the lines drawn on the municipal map.

“It’s not exactly what our map was showing but it’s very close to what we [submitted],” said Mansfield et Pontefract Director General, Eric Rochon.

While Rochon said the new map is a far cry from the province’s first clumsy attempt, it’s still not perfect.

“It was very different,” Rochon said of the new map compared to the original map. “The area that we put on the map that was flooded was much smaller than what they produced at first.”

Rochon said that the most recent map sent to the province by the municipality wasn’t incorporated in the province’s updated version.

But he’s confident another update will bring the province’s map closer in line with the municipality’s.

In the meantime, residents are asked to contact their municipality to ask for their property to be removed from the province’s map – a situation Rochon said was less than ideal.

He acknowledged that the municipality is in a middle-man position, having to convey information from residents to the province when it had no part in re-drawing the flood lines.

“It’s not us who made the map,” Rochon said. “It’s a bad place to put a municipality.”

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