GATINEAU—Like most people affected by this year’s flood season, Rene and Leona Chenier are barely a step ahead of the rising water.

Their small and immaculate bungalow was surrounded Tuesday by hundreds of orange sandbags, homemade plywood structures and old plastic sheeting to keep the floodwaters of the Gatineau River at bay.

The muddy overflow was halfway up their small driveway, lapping near a post where a child’s stuffed dog had taken refuge.

Inside, the couple was dry, eating lunch and waiting. A glistening red accordion sat on the floor by the kitchen table, left there from the night before.

“I needed to take my mind off things,” he explained.

That’s because he — like every other resident of this working-class neighbourhood in the oldest part of Gatineau — knows how bad it can get. He vividly remembers two years ago when the river flooded quickly and caught homeowners off guard. The devastation was widespread.

Rene’s brother had to evacuate his house next door, and eventually saw it condemned and torn down. He rents an apartment now, because the compensation money he received from government wasn’t enough to buy a new house. A family with eight children from down the street moved into a hotel for six months and never came back.

This year, residents, governments, insurance companies and front-line workers seem to be better prepared for flood season. They predicted the flooding patterns in advance, and warned New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec to get ready. Communities filled sandbags, and in Gatineau there’s more than enough for everyone. Homeowners like the Cheniers battened down the hatches and rigged up pumps in their basements. Around the corner, Cynthia Pelletier had time to come from across town to calm her panicking elderly mother and keep an eye on the sandbags.

It helps that the flooding is not as bad as the last time. At least, it isn’t yet — the water level won’t peak in Gatineau and Montreal until later this week.

But they know this is no long-term solution. Across the country, the floodwaters are rising faster than policy-makers can act, and low-income Canadians face a disproportionate risk of loss.

The patchwork of government aid, private insurance and community support that helps people when their homes are destroyed by the spring melt is bewildering for most, and can lead to some deep financial pain — both for the families involved and the governments trying to subsidize them.

Flooding in Canada is the country’s most expensive kind of disaster. Increasingly frequent due to climate change, fire and floods now cost the federal government about $1 billion a year in disaster relief, and about three-quarters of that is related to flooding.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada pegged the costs of insured damage due to severe weather at $1.8-billion last year, but that was low compared to the $4.9-billion in insured damage in 2016.

So governments are worried that as long as they step up and help pay for flood damage, homeowners won’t buy flood insurance or take preventative steps. They are actively trying to figure out ways to limit their exposure, and to shift more of the risk onto property owners and insurance companies so that taxpayers aren’t on the hook year after year in the same flood zones. Quebec Premier François Legault, for example, announced this week that there would be a $100,000 cap on government payments for damages. Beyond that, homeowners would be expected to move, with the provincial government offering to pay up to $200,000 per house.

Those options are not great for the likes of the Cheniers. They can’t buy another house for $200,000. They’re in their 70s and don’t feel they can afford to take on a mortgage. They like their garden, and they are well supported by family and friends in the neighbourhood. They will probably stay put, regardless of what the river does over the next few days.

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One solution would see governments work with insurance companies to set up a high-risk insurance pool, or a series of regional pools, to operate outside the regular insurance industry. Individuals would pay premiums based on the risk level where they live, but there would be a cap that would make it affordable for low-income homeowners or First Nations residents living on reserves.

But while that idea sounds workable in principle, the details are difficult. Even if it flies, it won’t be a reality for another year or two. That’s lightning speed for government policy, but when it comes to racing against the compounding effects of climate change, it’s glacial.