Is Quebec Premier François Legault’s offer to pay homeowners $200,000 to abandon their flood-prone houses an example of government largesse, or an unjust drop in the bucket for residents whose homes were once worth far more?
The answer is complex, because when it comes to building homes on flood plains, there are several players who may share the blame, including the federal, provincial and municipal governments, the homeowners, and a capricious global weather system.
“The problem is responsibility is shared between a large number of actors, but the responsibilities are ambiguous enough that it’s very difficult to hold any one party accountable,” said Water Insititute member Daniel Henstra, a University of Waterloo professor specializing in flood-management policies, and a fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
“Governments are increasingly getting tired of paying to repair the same houses over and over, so when it comes to fairness as a general principle, they have to also look at whether it’s fair for the public treasury — that is, taxpayers — to be repeatedly bailing out these people who have these repeated flood losses.”