Two studies show that not only is Eastern Canada set to lose billions of dollars should an earthquake strike the region, but its residents are mostly unaware of the danger.

One study by Swiss Re predicted that Montrealers could suffer $45 billion in economic losses if the city was hit by a 5.8 magnitude quake.

Montreal had previously suffered a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in 1732, noted Maurice Lamontagne, a seismologist with the Geological Survey of Canada. About 300 houses were damaged back then, but should a similar tremor strike today, it “would cause a lot more damage,” Lamontagne noted.

Swiss Re’s study, entitled “Earthquake Risk in Eastern Canada: Mind the Shakes,” said that quakes in the East are typically of lower magnitude than in the West, “but their loss-inflicting potential, particularly in southern Quebec and eastern Ontario, is huge.”

The study explained that three of the biggest cities in Canada – namely Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City – are all located in the most earthquake-prone regions in the East.

“You don’t get huge earthquakes like they get in Japan, in California,” Lamontagne explained. “But we do get what you call moderate earthquakes, so six to seven on the Richter scale are possible.”

Another other study by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) noted that 85% of the respondents in Eastern Canada said that they did not think their homes were at risk of earthquake damage.

“It’s about 3% of people who have earthquake insurance in the Quebec City area, about 4% in Montreal,” IBC Quebec spokesman Pierre Babinsky told The Canadian Press. “And Charlevoix, where they felt a few stronger earthquakes, the average isn’t much higher.”


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