Nearly five years after floods raced through hundreds of Quebec communities and forced thousands from their homes, a major lender’s decision to stop issuing new mortgages in flood zones is the latest challenge for cities trying to adapt to a changing climate.
Desjardins Group announced that as of Feb. 1, it would no longer offer new mortgages for properties in “0-20 year” flood zones — where there is a five per cent chance of flooding in any given year — because of what it called the rising impact of climate change.