Almost 3,800 businesses in three regions at risk from flooding: StatCan

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says almost 3,800 business locations were at risk of being affected by spring flooding in three of the hardest hit regions of the country.

About 1,500 were potentially affected as of the end of April in the Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac region about 40 kilometres northwest of Montreal, 1,500 in the Ottawa-Gatineau region (1,086 in Gatineau and 400 in Ottawa), and 800 in the Fredericton_Saint John region in New Brunswick.

The agency made the assessment after using flood extent maps produced by Natural Resources Canada from satellite data acquired by the Canadian Space Agency from April 17 to 30.

Residents Lawrence Courville (left) and Andie Goulet carry out belongings down a flooded street in Ste-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, Que., Sunday, April 28, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Statistics Canada says small businesses, including those operating from a home, are most affected by flooding with about 85 per cent having no employees and nine per cent having one to four employees.

One-quarter of the affected businesses are in real estate, rental and leasing, 12 per cent offering professional, scientific and technical services and 10 per cent in construction.

Nearly 100 larger business locations with five or more employees were in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, 47 in the Montreal area region and 82 in New Brunswick. The most common industry sectors were retail and construction at 21 and 19 per cent respectively.