Flooding: closures and other notes
There really is no local news story Monday that isn’t about the flooding. CBC has a summary of road and school closures – mostly off-island – and notes on things like free train service for areas otherwise blocked off by closed roads and bridges.
Luc Ferrandez has been reprimanded for posting a Facebook piece expressing frustration with people who build houses and live in flood zones, then expect government help when the water rises. He’s since taken it down and apologized.
In some off-island areas, the flooding is being called worse than 2017’s.
qatzelok 09:13 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Luc Ferrandez was guilty of flood-shaming?
Chris 09:27 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Maybe if we (and others) had free train service for the last 50 years, we’d have less climate change. Maybe we should start free train service now to minimize how much worse it will become. Nah, that would infringe on business’ right to sell stuff!
I guess Ferrandez’s timing is bad, but I’m pretty sure lots of people will agree with him.
walkerp 10:11 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Is he really such a hothead or is this signs of somebody having too much power within his little fiefdom?
Ephraim 10:31 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
walkerp…. let’s see… he’s well known for deleting comments he doesn’t agree with from his facebook pages. Any politician who can’t manage to take on dissent isn’t much of a politician…. you don’t have to agree with what people say… you do have to let them say it. (And I had to walk away from his discussion in my local park when I heard him blaming parts of the problems in the Plateau on “Anglos”.
Ian Rogers 11:32 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Twitter, too. He actually quit social media for a while because he kept arguing with people in a dismissive and confrontational matter enough that it started to create some pretty bad optics. I was actually pretty surprised he came back to social media. He and Norris both have an, ahem, “reputation” in this regard.
qatzelok 11:34 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
I prefer frank politicians to slick liars.
Personally, I don’t like to be well conned.
Joey 12:00 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
The province/city need rules (or at least guidelines) for how politicians use social media. Ferrandez and Norris, and presumably others, use their personal social media accounts almost exclusively as political communications tools, yet they are both quick to delete comments and block people, including their constituents, from seeing their posts. In addition to creating an echo chamber, this prevents citizens from being aware of what their elected officials are communicating to the masses. You may recall that a U.S. federal court forced Donald Trump to unblock Twitter users. Even if you love Luc Ferrandez, warts and all, he’s been Plateau mayor for 10 years and there’s no sign of that changing anytime soon. Turnover, even just within the context of Projet Mtl’s plateau leadership, is overdue. A politician who wakes up on a Saturday morning in the middle of a crisis to have a temper tantrum on Facebook is probably due for a time-out.
Ephraim 12:10 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
If you use your personal Social media account for politics, you should expect dissent. You should also realize that when you are local politician and you get into discussions you have no REAL idea about, that you may be called out about it. (For example, making comments about International politics.) You should be smart enough to realize that deleting and blocking don’t solve the problem… they exasperate the problem.
Douglas 14:00 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
The only good thing I’ve ever read about Ferrandez was when he got ticketed for biking on the wrong side. Other than that, he is definitely just an emperor of his little fiefdom.
Blork 14:35 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Ferrandez has always struck me as someone who has little patience or respect for people who disagree with him, which is great for a dictator but not so good for a politician.
JPM 15:23 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
He has always struck me as a “very stable genius”.
EmilyG 16:06 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Wow, Ferrandez actually said “Fuck you” in his post? That’s pretty unprofessional (among other things.)
And as for why people “choose to live in flood zones,” I lived in Pierrefonds for most of my life and I don’t remember there ever being any large-scale flooding there until two years ago.
Blork 17:34 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
He didn’t just say it, he said it twice (in the same post). Although it does seem that the F-bomb is barely a firecracker to many Francophones. But still…
Jack 18:14 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Did anyone read what he posted? He is dead right.
https://www.cliqueduplateau.com/2019/04/27/la-publication-de-ferrandez-maintenant-supprimee/.
Read and tell me whats wrong with him calling out our collective hypocrisy, our collective comfort and convience first before our kids and grandchildrens futures. I think that was his I am mad as hell moment and I get it.
Alex L 19:38 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Thanks Jack. There seems to be some easy Ferrandez bashing going on here. I’m 100% with what Ferrandez posted, although as said on here, maybe the timing wasn’t good.
Kate 20:11 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Indeed. I am also of Ferrandez’ way of thinking. Yes, he could’ve been more tactful, but just imagine the amount of bullshit he has to listen to in his job.
Chris 21:02 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
Also, I’d rather a politician with good policies and poor tact, than vice versa.
Blork 21:43 on 2019-04-29 Permalink
It’s less about what he said as how he said it. Saying “Fuck you” (twice!) to people who are in the middle of an emergency situation, and using his personal social media to make inflammatory political statements… it feels like something Trump or some other ignoramus would do.
Some of the people who are affected by these floods have been living at those locations for 30 years or more, and when they moved there it was considered a “once in a century” flood risk. Many of them are not even very close to the water. People have been building close to the water for 500 years.
So yeah, in retrospect it seems like a bad idea but people are in harm’s way right now and are at risk of losing the most valuable thing they own, and this guy — a borough mayor — comes in and says “fuck you?”
Is he also going to say “fuck you” to the people who live near Baldwin Park and are now stuck with homes — some new some old — that are built on a contaminated landfill site? If there’s a train derailment near Papineau and St-Gregoire and a bunch of homes burn, will he say “fuck you” to those people before the fires are even out?
Jack 02:38 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
@Blork he is saying fuck you to all of us. We are about to begin construction on a “ troisieme linge “ in Quebec City. Alberta and Ontario are reneging on the carbon tax. Alberta is threating BC economically if they don’t allow for another pipeline. I recognize that when some people bought they didn’t realize that these “events” would happen so frequently. But maybe now they can reflect on the fact that having 3 or 4 cars in the driveway, electing a CAQ deputy who had a zero page environmental platform, has a direct link to the situation they are in.
Blork 08:46 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
Hmm, yeah I took a closer look and I see that now. Still, seems a bit low class.
Jack 09:22 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
I think its just pure desperation, he has been on these issues for 20 plus years and sees us going backwards. When I think classy I think Dougie Ford.
walkerp 09:37 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
I too agree with the text of what he writes. The weirdness is that I am a citizen who has to phone 311 once a week to complain that the streetcleaner still hasn’t passed by. He is the borough mayor whose party is in power and who has demonstrated that he can use that power. This tone of frustration demonstrates that he really has no idea what real citizen frustration feels like and that to me is a sign that he has been in power too long.
Kevin 10:29 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
Ferrandez is a Manichean who wants everybody to sit in their own neighbourhood and never leave. He’s Lord Business.
We shouldn’t build in flood plains – except all flood maps are out of date.
We have to protect woodlands – except people want a place to live with space and the Plateau is too expensive.
We shouldn’t build a third link to Quebec City except there’s too much traffic because people like being mobile.
We shouldn’t build a second stadium except the Big O doesn’t work for anything.
We shouldn’t expand the airport except for jobs that depend on tourism and mobility.
We should put a deposit on glass bottles except companies don’t want to spend the money to use recycled glass.
We know we need to sort our recycling at home except for all the times that didn’t work so cities stopped asking.
We know we shouldn’t build a pipeline except we already have pipelines and use inefficient trains to transport oil, and the deal was to impose a carbon tax to discourage carbon use.
Ian 10:36 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
Well put, Kevin. Holier-than-thou and intolerant of the general population are not hallmarks of a great leader.
Jack 10:46 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
Kevin you should have stopped at we should or we should not thats where your logic was really strong, after that…not so much.
Chris 10:49 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
Blork “some … have been living at those locations for 30 years or more”. An earlier article Kate posted said it’s been illegal to build in flood zones for _50 years_. So even longtimers get reduced sympathy from me. Buying property involves professionals like real estate agents, lawyers, notaries, etc., obviously each case is different, and yeah some maps were outdated, but many buyers should have known even half a century ago that they were making a risky choice.
I’m also reminded of the refrain in the USA after a gun massacre: “now is not the time to talk about gun control”. Perhaps the middle of a climate disaster *is* the time to get mad about and talk about things that are destroying our climate. Including most of Kevin’s list.
walkerp 11:34 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
I would love to see some journalism on what actually goes down (or went down) when people bought in a potentially flooding area. Does the agent mention it and brush it off and the buyer doesn’t ask because they don’t want to know?
Blork 12:37 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
@Chris my point was that much of what is flooded now wasn’t considered a flood zone 30-40 years ago. (AFAIK; to be confirmed.)
Kevin 12:38 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
@walkerp
We did this in 2017: flood maps are out of date and very hard to find.
Some places saw floods in 2017 for the first time ever. Some were places that flood frequently.
Huntingdon used to flood all the time, but it hasn’t flooded for years.
Flooding isn’t a uniform thing: it all depends on many bodies of water and snow packs that can be hundreds of kilometres away.
Blork 16:09 on 2019-04-30 Permalink
There are a few things to bear in mind before you get all judgey on people who live near water. First thing is that 30-40 years ago, there was very little talk of climate change, and what little talk there was all seemed very abstract and theoretical, and even a bit flaky. And there was virtually no talk of flood plains. In fact, early “global warming” rhetoric was the opposite: it was all about how there would be LESS water; that everything was going to dry up and turn to desert. Rising sea levels was only raised as an issue for coastal cities.
The idea of climate change leading to recurring flooding along the St. Lawrence and its tributaries was obscure at best. People were more likely to look at historical precedent than to rely on tangential side notes to some odd doomsday scenario, which is what global warming seemed like three or four decades ago.
Back then, global warming was just one of any number of “sky is falling” scenarios that people heard about, all of which took back stage to more immediate threats such as getting vaporized by a Soviet nuclear missile or having your house collapse on you in an earthquake.
Speaking of, how many of us live in houses or apartments that are earthquake-proof? You say earthquakes aren’t a big problem? They’re probably about as much of a risk now as flooding was 35 years ago. So when your apartment caves in on you next year and you loose all your stuff, I take it you won’t mind if some earthquake-preparedness advocate pays you a visit to give you a lecture on how you should have known better.
(For the record, I’m not talking about recent housing developments along the water, where people really ought to know better. I’m talking about the majority of people getting flooded now, which are people living in houses built decades ago and have only had problems very recently.)
Kevin 08:48 on 2019-05-01 Permalink
@Blork
We’ve had multiple tornadoes and microbursts in Quebec in the past decade. How many new construction homes are spending the $2,000 to ensure the rafters are not ripped off?
Ian 12:34 on 2019-05-01 Permalink
On CBC yesterday I was listening to a guy in the flood zone who wants to move pretty badly but can’t afford to. His house was built in 1895.
While there are a lot of post-war developments that were clearly meant to quickly line the pockets of developers who are nowhere to be seen now, a lot of this retro-shaming is wildly inaccurate.