Quebec towns brace for erosion, flooding amid changing climate

As temperatures warm and waves eat away at coast, municipalities get to work

MONTREAL— The windswept archipelago of Îles-de-la-Madeleine used to spend most of every winter firmly encased in the ice of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, protected from the worst effects of winter storms.

But warmer temperatures in recent years mean the surrounding waters are more often ice-free, leaving the eastern Quebec island chain at the mercy of battering waves that eat away at the coastline and put vital infrastructure at risk. “When I was young and came home to the islands for Christmas, as of January the islands were surrounded, we were trapped in the ice,” Serge Bourgeois, planning director in Îlesde-la-Madeleine, said in an interview.

“Now, the difference is so palpable that we’re more likely to remember winters when there is ice than those when there isn’t.”

The town has had to move observation sites and a bike path away from the receding coast, and is facing the prospect of costlier adjustments in the next five years as the erosion creeps closer to more crucial infrastructure, according to Bourgeois.

Other towns along the gulf and the St. Lawrence River are facing similar issues, as warming temperatures accelerate the age-old processes of ero- sion and flooding, according to Guillaume Marie, a geography professor and erosion specialist at the Université du Québec à Rimouski.

“While we’re not seeing an increase in the number of storms in the St. Lawrence River and gulf, we’re seeing an increase in the number of storms that have an impact on the coast, which show there are fewer ice floes to protect them,” he said in a phone interview.

With the funding of the Quebec government, the university has embarked on a multi-year project to study coastal resilience and develop tools to help eastern Quebec communities adapt to climate change. In many cases, this will mean making difficult and costly choices about what infrastructure to save and what to sacrifice, Marie says.

Possible adaptation measures can include building rock walls or piles of stones, building bypasses around towns in case main roads are damaged, adding sand to beaches and planting vegetation on dunes — a natural way to try to both break up waves and prevent erosion.

The best solution, Marie says, is to avoid building in risky areas — but that doesn’t help people who already live in those zones.

For now, the university is consulting with towns in order to help them assess priorities, evaluate what’s working and develop future strategies to mitigate or repair the damage.

In many towns, the process is already underway.

Percé, near the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, is in the midst of a vast coastal reconstruction project that gained new urgency last winter after its seaside boardwalk was washed away in a winter storm.

The project, which is being financed by the province, involves first shoring up the beach with huge volumes of sand and pebbles, followed by an eventual boardwalk rebuild.

Just north of Percé, the town of Gaspé has tightened its regulations to prevent new construction in certain zones after a higher-than-usual amount of flooding in the last 10 years, with more studies underway.

Some towns, including Îles-de-la-Madeleine, have already had to make the unpopular decision to relocate people and homes. Bourgeois says more tough decisions are coming.