Updated — June 2026
This article, initially published in July 2025, has been updated to reflect the entry into force of Quebec’s modernized regulatory framework on March 1, 2026, as well as recent episodes of intense rainfall and flash flooding observed in the Greater Montreal area.
Faced with intense rainfall events and flash floods that are becoming increasingly difficult to predict, Quebec municipalities must navigate a complex reality: protecting citizens, maintaining access to essential services, preserving public infrastructure, and limiting the financial impacts of disasters.
Recent events in the Montreal area remind us that flood resilience can no longer be addressed only after the fact. It must be integrated upstream, into land-use planning, emergency response plans, infrastructure investments, and temporary or permanent protection strategies.
In this article, we present concrete approaches to strengthening flood resilience in Quebec, taking into account the modernized regulatory framework, the operational realities of municipalities, and the role that removable protection solutions can play within a broader mitigation strategy.
Why Talk About Resilience Now?
Extreme weather events are placing growing pressure on municipal infrastructure, transportation networks, essential services, and private properties.
In August 2024, Tropical Storm Debby caused major flooding in Quebec, affecting several municipalities and testing local response capacities. In June 2026, torrential rainfall once again led to flash flooding in certain parts of the Greater Montreal area, particularly in the West Island and on the South Shore.
These events highlight an important reality: even when existing infrastructure operates as intended, some weather events can quickly exceed the capacity of drainage systems, roads, permanent flood protection works, and emergency response teams.
The question is no longer only how to respond to a flood, but how to reduce vulnerability before water reaches critical areas.
This is also a financial issue. According to Statistics Canada, claims related to catastrophic events reached $8.6 billion in Canada in 2024, a record high. Flooding in Quebec accounted for $2.7 billion of those claims. Between December 2019 and December 2025, home insurance and mortgage insurance premiums increased by 45% across the country.
For municipalities, asset owners, and organizations responsible for critical infrastructure, flood resilience is therefore becoming an issue of safety, operational continuity, and sustainable cost management.
The question is no longer whether a flood will occur, but when. And above all: are we ready?
A Modernized Regulatory Framework and New Responsibilities
Adopted in June 2025 and in force since March 1, 2026, Quebec’s modernized regulatory framework replaces the transitional regime for the management of flood zones, shorelines, and littoral areas. It aims to better regulate land-use planning, reduce flood-related risks, protect people and property, and preserve the ecological functions of water environments.
Here are the key elements of this framework for municipalities to keep in mind:
Flood mapping and zoning: the new maps will incorporate a more current understanding of risk, particularly by taking into account recent scientific knowledge, the effects of climate change, and the evolution of water-related hazards. Flood zones are now classified according to different risk levels, allowing for a more nuanced approach than the former 0–20 year and 20–100 year recurrence zones.
In the Greater Montreal area, the new maps cover 70 municipalities. They will be published gradually, after approval by the Government of Quebec. Existing maps remain valid until they are officially replaced.
Restrictions and permits in flood zones: the framework clarifies which interventions are permitted, regulated, or prohibited depending on the level of risk and the nature of the work. Municipalities must therefore pay particular attention to permit applications, applicable technical conditions, and environmental requirements related to water environments.
Flood protection works: permanent works, such as dikes and other fixed infrastructure, are subject to stricter requirements regarding design, maintenance, evaluation, and authorization. The framework also recognizes that even areas protected by a flood protection work may retain residual risk.
Flood risk management plans: regional county municipalities, or MRCs, may develop risk management plans to adapt land-use planning to local realities. When such a plan is implemented, it must be based on a land-use strategy, mitigation measures, prevention measures, and public awareness actions.
Overall, this modernized framework encourages a more structured approach to flood resilience. It pushes municipalities, MRCs, and infrastructure managers to better understand their level of exposure, plan earlier, and consider a combination of permanent, temporary, natural, and operational measures to reduce risk.
This more demanding regulatory context also encourages the exploration of flexible and temporary solutions to mitigate risk, including removable flood barriers when they are integrated into a broader protection and emergency management strategy.
Regulatory requirements may vary depending on the type of intervention, the site, the applicable mapping, and the required authorizations. Municipalities should validate any protection strategy with their technical, legal, and environmental teams.
The Role of Removable Flood Barriers in a Temporary Protection Strategy
In a municipal flood resilience strategy, permanent solutions cannot always address every on-the-ground reality. Some areas are difficult to modify quickly. Others require targeted protection during flood events, intense rainfall, or localized overflows. This is where removable protection systems can play a complementary role.
SBB’s aluminum flood barriers are designed to provide a temporary, reusable, and rapidly deployable solution to help protect vulnerable areas when risk levels increase. They can be considered to secure critical access points, protect certain municipal buildings, reduce the exposure of sensitive areas, or reinforce an intervention strategy during extreme weather events.
Unlike permanent works, removable systems do not necessarily aim to permanently transform the landscape. Their value lies instead in their flexibility: they can be stored, transported, installed as needed, and reused during different events, depending on the site configuration and the established response plan.
This approach can be particularly relevant for municipalities that want to add a layer of protection without relying only on reactive measures such as sandbags. Sandbags remain useful in certain emergency contexts, but they have significant limitations in terms of labour, deployment speed, waste management, and reuse.
However, removable barriers must be integrated with rigor. Their use should be evaluated based on the site, the level of risk, the access points to be protected, hydraulic conditions, the municipality’s operational capacity, and applicable regulatory requirements. They do not replace land-use planning, permanent infrastructure, natural infrastructure, or drainage work. Rather, they can form part of a broader toolbox aimed at reducing the vulnerability of citizens, public assets, and critical infrastructure.
At SBB, our approach is to design modular solutions capable of adapting to real field conditions. In a context where municipalities must plan earlier, act faster, and better protect their infrastructure, removable flood barriers can become a concrete lever for preparedness when deployed as part of a comprehensive risk management strategy.
Operational Benefits of SBB Barriers
In the field, aluminum flood barriers offer significant practical advantages compared with traditional methods such as sandbags or earth dikes.
- Rapid Deployment and Simplified Logistics: SBB aluminum flood barriers are lightweight and modular, making them easy to transport and install within a few hours. A small municipal team can assemble a long barrier section without heavy machinery, which is ideal when time is critical.
- Efficiency and Robustness: Once in place, the barrier forms a watertight dike capable of retaining up to 1 metre of water. It has been tested to withstand not only hydrostatic pressure but also currents, waves, and impacts from debris carried by floodwaters. This provides a high level of protection for critical infrastructure and riverside buildings. In terms of performance, a line of SBB barriers effectively replaces thousands of sandbags by creating a continuous barrier without weak points. It can protect electrical substations, drinking water plants, municipal centres, flood-prone streets, and more, helping maintain the continuity of essential operations.
- Reusability and Durability: SBB products are designed using high-quality marine-grade aluminum, making them corrosion-resistant and highly durable. Unlike fixed structures made from conventional materials, which may deteriorate or require repairs after each flood, removable barriers can be dismantled, stored, and returned intact for the next event. SBB estimates the service life of its barriers at at least 20 years, with multiple possible uses. This reusability is not only economical, as the cost is spread over several decades, but also ecological: it avoids generating waste, such as contaminated sandbags that must be disposed of, and does not cause site contamination. In short, it is a sustainable and “green” solution for flood risk management.
- Compliance with Emergency Operations: Emergency management coordinators will appreciate the logistical simplicity of SBB barriers. They can be pre-positioned near high-risk areas, stored in a municipal warehouse or in a container configured by SBB, then quickly transported to the site as soon as a flood alert is issued. Their installation does not require complex tools or extensive ground preparation. In addition, the barriers can be deployed even on uneven or irregular terrain, adapting to streets, sidewalks, yards, and natural shorelines thanks to a flexible modular system. After the water recedes, dismantling leaves the environment in its original condition, in accordance with the requirements for the removal of temporary structures. This logistical and regulatory flexibility is a major advantage for a municipality that wants to protect certain neighbourhoods as needed, without committing to long and costly permanent works.
Cost-Effectiveness Comparison
One of the decisive criteria when choosing between temporary flood barriers, fixed works, and emergency methods such as sandbags is cost-effectiveness over the full life cycle.
Permanent works, such as walls or dikes, may be necessary in certain high-risk contexts. However, they require technical studies, civil engineering work, authorizations, maintenance, and significant investment. They may also involve considerable planning and implementation timelines.
Sandbags, on the other hand, remain a known and accessible solution in certain emergency contexts. However, they can require substantial labour, be difficult to deploy quickly at scale, and create significant challenges after the event, particularly in terms of collection, transportation, potential contamination, and disposal.
Removable barriers sit between these two approaches. They do not replace permanent infrastructure when it is necessary, but they can offer a more flexible option for sites where temporary, targeted, and reusable protection is preferable.
For a municipality, this flexibility can make it possible to begin with the most vulnerable areas, adjust coverage over time, and integrate temporary protection into a broader risk management strategy.
Operating Costs
Cost analysis should not be limited to the purchase price. It should also consider labour, storage, mobilization, maintenance, training, transportation, collection, site restoration, and reuse costs.
Permanent works can generate recurring costs related to inspection, maintenance, upgrades, and compliance. Single-use or labour-intensive methods can also generate significant costs with each event.
By contrast, a removable solution can be integrated into a long-term preparedness logic. When there is no event, it can be stored. When a risk emerges, it can be redeployed. After the event, it can be dismantled, inspected, and prepared for future use.
This life-cycle approach is particularly important in a context where municipalities must do more with constrained budgets, while also responding to growing expectations around safety, continuity of services, and environmental responsibility.
Lessons Applicable to Québec
Internationally, the city of Venice, Italy, developed the MOSE system of mobile barriers against high tides. Closer to home, the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, has for decades deployed a temporary earth dike to channel the Red River during floods — a massive undertaking that a modular aluminum system could simplify.
In the Netherlands, global experts in water engineering, temporary metal barriers protect certain low-lying areas while permanent dikes are reinforced. These cases show that even regions with highly organized flood protection systems rely on temporary structures to close a gap or add a safety margin during extreme events.
Québec is part of this global trend, seeking to combine permanent structures, such as dikes where justified, with removable structures for greater flexibility. Every major flood in recent years has strengthened the belief that the available “toolbox” of measures must be expanded — and SBB barriers are now an integral part of that toolbox.
Conclusion
Flood resilience in Quebec is no longer optional: it is becoming a shared responsibility among municipalities, citizens, asset owners, infrastructure managers, and technical partners.
Permanent solutions, green infrastructure, emergency plans, risk mapping, and removable protection systems should not be seen as opposing approaches. Together, they form a more flexible toolbox to reduce community vulnerability.
At SBB, we believe the best response to extreme events begins before the emergency: through planning, engineering, preparedness, and solutions capable of adapting to real field conditions.
Together… let’s be ready.
Sources
Gouvernement du Québec (2025). Règlement sur les ouvrages de protection contre les inondations (ROPI) – Gazette officielle du Québec, 25 juin 2025, 157e année, no 26.
➜ https://www.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.caGouvernement du Québec (2025). Règlement sur l’encadrement d’activités sous la responsabilité des municipalités réalisées dans des milieux hydriques et sur des ouvrages de protection contre les inondations.
➜ https://www.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.caSBB Structures (2024). FPS GENERAL 2024 – Comparatif technique et économique entre sacs de sable et barrières amovibles.
➜ Document interne fourni par SBB Structures.Ouranos (2021). Coûts et efficacité des mesures d’adaptation aux inondations – Rapport sur les solutions temporaires et durables face aux crues.
➜ https://www.ouranos.caFasken (2023). Réforme du cadre légal québécois en matière d’ouvrages de protection contre les inondations.
➜ https://www.fasken.comRadio-Canada (2019). Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac : rupture de digue et crise municipale.
➜ https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1169360/rupture-digue-evacuation-temoignageLe Devoir (2024). Tempête Debby : plus de 50 municipalités touchées par les inondations.
➜ https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/environnement/814724/tempete-debby-inondations-quebec