Martin C. Barry
After commissioning a consultant’s report last June on the state of Rosemère’s three anti-flood dikes along the Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, Rosemère town council reported during the Oct. 15 council meeting that a final report will be tabled in February.
Three flood dikes
The dikes are located along Belleville St. in eastern Rosemère, around the centre of the town on Skelton St. and in the west near the Exo commuter railway line.
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“The mandate was granted with the goal of evaluating the security of the dikes and to furnish us with recommendations and possibly with stabilization work to be done if necessary,” said Councillor René Villeneuve who is responsible for the dossier.
While suggesting that council has been receiving initial information from the consultant in bits and pieces, Villeneuve said they would be providing residents with more conclusive information as soon as it becomes available.
Flood protections sought
On the other hand, regarding another mandate that was granted to analyze sectors of the town not protected against spring flooding from the Rivière des Mille Îles, Villeneuve said experts will be guiding town officials as they seek ways to protect built-up and natural areas vulnerable to flooding.
“This analysis will allow the town to put into place an intervention and management scenario,” he said. “As well, protective measures will be suggested taking into account legal considerations and environmental impacts.” He said the above actions should take around four months to complete and the town should have a final report at the end of February 2020.
Permits needed from Ministry
“Once we have received the first orientation of that mandate, we will work in close collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change to obtain the authorizations necessary in order to revise the protection measures because we must ask permission from the Ministry of the Environment.”
In closing, Villeneuve said he wanted to point out that the Town of Rosemère was able to obtain a subsidy from the federal government’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund covering 80 per cent of the future work likely to be recommended for the town’s current dike network.
Report on public security
Reporting on the state of public security in Rosemère, Councillor Philip Panet-Raymond said a public security plan has been updated to take into account natural disasters which could happen in the future. The plan was modeled on an example provided by the Quebec Public Security Ministry, he added.
“This plan allows us to respect regulations for procedures to follow for security alerts and mobilization and the means to take to protect security of people and property in case of disasters, while encouraging reflection on the risks of disaster on the territory of our municipality in order to take into account concerns in the context of preparation for disasters,” he said.
High mark from Ministry
Panet-Raymond said the town’s civil security plan aims for continuing improvement, as well as the development of a civil security framework centred on the well-being of the municipality. He noted that following the plan’s update by town personnel, the Quebec Ministry of Public Security gave the new plan a 92 per cent grading.
“This should be reassuring to us all,” he said. “The town is giving to itself the mission of maintaining up to date its plan to keep abreast with new regulations regarding civil security, to work in concert with its front-line operational partners, that is the firefighters and the police, and to maintain a constant contact with the Ministry of Public Security.”
