Dear Sir,

I am writing to you today to express concerns my constituents have raised regarding the special intervention zone (Zone d’Intervention Spéciale – ZIS) that your government wants to put in place in at-risk for floods areas.

Like you, my priority is for flood victims to return to a semblance of normalcy. That’s why the federal government quickly allocated $ 2.5 million to the Red Cross to help those affected by floods. Our government has also been proactive in providing compensation by offering advance payments to provinces to facilitate your work and expedite the compensation process. We also have funds in place to facilitate the reconstruction of infrastructure better adapted to climate change.

I agree that we need to take concrete actions to prevent the recent floods from happening again. Zoning and land use issues are under provincial jurisdiction and I respect the autonomy of provinces. However, many of my constituents have expressed their concerns by the ZIS to me and I would like to share them with you.

One of the comments I have heard a lot from my constituents is that they would like to be consulted more during this process. The public consultation in Campbell’s Bay was a good initiative and I welcome the fact that the department organized a consultation in the MRC Pontiac in addition to the one held in Gatineau. According to the staffer who attended on my behalf, people in attendance had the opportunity to share their concerns with your government, but unfortunately, they did not get answers to their questions. In addition, many were unable to attend this meeting since it was in the afternoon on a weekday.

More consultations would allow more residents to express their concerns and ask questions about the ZIS and would give your government’s public servants time to respond to their questions.

In addition to continuing to consult the public, I believe that a continuous dialogue with our municipalities is essential. Municipalities are in the best position to share information about areas that flooded in 2017 and 2019. Also, as I mentioned to Gatineau MNA Robert Bussière during our phone call last week, rural municipalities will be the most affected by the ZIS.

Rebuilding bans and the effect that ZIS will have on the value of properties will affect the amount of property our municipality can collect, which will have negative repercussions on entire communities. This is especially true if cottages – which are already not receiving compensation according to the criteria established by your provincial government — are also affected by this ban on rebuilding. I know that the vitality of our rural areas is an issue that is important to you, so I ask that you work with our municipalities to ensure that we do not sacrifice the vitality of our regions in our efforts to mitigate future floods. I am very pleased that the provincial government is revising the ZIS map to better reflect the reality on the ground. I know that many citizens are concerned about seeing entire villages as well as homes and buildings that have never been flooded included in the ZIS. I hope that you will remain open to comments from citizens after the publication of the revised map. In addition, Minister Lacombe, I know that, like me, you have spoken in favour of a comprehensive and independent study of dam management during floods. I strongly hope to see this study go ahead and I believe that people would be reassured to see the results of this study influence the ZIS map.

Finally, I would like to invite you to join me on Aug. 19 to listen to the concerns of our citizens during a public consultation that will take place from 7:00 pm to 9:00 p.m. on Allumettes Island (6 rue St-Joseph). I hope you will be able to join me despite your busy schedule.

Minister Lacombe, on behalf of the citizens of the region, I thank you for your attention to our concerns.