Breached dike in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac will be rebuilt, says environment minister

The Quebec government will help the Montreal suburb of Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac shore up the dike that was breached last month and will contribute to the construction of a new, state-of-the-art replacement, Environment Minister Benoît Charette said Friday.

The Lake of Two Mountains broke through a section of the dike on April 27, flooding streets and forcing thousands from their homes.

Reinforcing the existing dike and building a new one will provide some security to Sainte-Marthe's residents, Charette said, including to thousands who live along the dike's three-kilometre span and who escaped the flooding this time.

"If this dike isn't reinforced and rebuilt in the medium term, we would very certainly be looking at the relocation of several thousand people," said Charette at a Friday news conference in Sainte-Marthe, not far from his own Deux-Montagnes constituency.

The cost will be determined in the coming weeks.

Exact timing is also unclear, but the ministry is using emergency laws to fast-track approval so that residents can "breathe easier" about the 2020 flood season, Charette said. An assessment by Quebec's environmental review agency won't be required.

The replacement dike will "definitely be higher than the existing one," he said, but it's not yet clear if it will be made of concrete or if it will be a natural dike like the current one  — a grassy knoll packed with gravel and earth.

'Dikes can't be seen as solution for all flood problems': Charette

A temporary dike was built after the breach on April 27 and most residents have been allowed to return to their homes — but many have found those homes unfit to live in.

In the aftermath, some residents decided to pursue a class action lawsuit against the Quebec government, the regional municipality of Deux-Montagnes and the municipality of Sainte-Marthe, arguing that the weakened state of the dike was known to those authorities, who did not act quickly enough. The lawsuit was filed in Quebec Superior Court Friday.

The replacement dike should not be seen as permission to rebuild, Charette said.

"We don't know at this point if everybody will be able to rebuild their homes in the same place," he said.

Charette also underlined that support for rebuilding the Sainte-Marthe dike does not suggest general enthusiasm for dikes.

"Dikes can't be seen as a solution for all flood problems," he said. "We don't want this announcement to suggest that the solution to flooding in Quebec is to build dikes."

The flooding has upended plans to build a school in the municipality, which over the last few decades has more than doubled in size.

Earlier this month, the Quebec government promised to reassess where people are allowed to build in an attempt to mitigate future flooding.

Originally home to summer cottages, Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac expanded as the dike, built in 1980, allowed homes to be constructed on the lake bed.

The dike protected the community in 2017, when severe flooding hit much of the province, and was inspected afterwards. The government was planning on making repairs this fall.