The management of Quebecers’ real estate assets has been much criticized over the past four years. Does the situation promise to be better under a new government?
In 2020, the Office of the Auditor General condemns the laissez-faire attitude of the Ministry of Culture and Communications (MCC) in protecting the heritage of Quebecers. Its investigation concludes with a lack of vision, an inadequate strategy and the absence of leadership. The State is not even exemplary in the matter, which the law nevertheless commits it to be, concludes the devastating audit tabled before the National Assembly. The auditor points to, among other things, 41 buildings and heritage sites requiring work that have not even been inspected for years.
The MCC is being criticized for not having taken “the necessary steps to promote heritage” as an “important asset of our society”, “nor to make citizens and all stakeholders in the community aware of its inestimable value and irreplaceable” as a legacy for future generations.
A failure
In June 2020, Minister Nathalie Roy recognizes the failure. “It’s a ballot with a big ‘E’ on it,” repeats the minister, while hastening to blame previous governments.
This leads to proposing some changes to the law. These give even more power to the municipalities, by now involving the RCMs more. The architect emeritus Phyllis Lambert and the ex-senator Serge Joyal are among those who denounce the avenue that the government is taking by betting on even more decentralization. They assert that not only does this partial reform not settle the question of the constant decay of heritage, “but that, in a way, [elle] will contribute to making its protection even more difficult”.
Among specialists, we also regret that the new law makes no room for modern heritage, focusing only on buildings from before 1940. For its part, the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ) welcomes the granting new funds to owners of old houses to renovate their homes.
Few municipalities consider the issue of heritage globally. This is the case of Beloeil and Terrebonne, where we have undertaken to list buildings en bloc. But for the vast majority of the 1107 municipalities in Quebec, few or few buildings are protected. When they are, the steps appear reversible. Moreover, even if the law allows it, no interior is protected.
The new Heritage Act requires more monitoring from MCC officials. The Directorate General for Heritage had 162 employees in 1977. It only had around thirty employees in 2020. Hirings have taken place since then, but “these people are often assigned to action plans or analysis, and not necessarily to the protection of heritage directly”, indicates to the To have to the Union of Professionals of the Government of Quebec.
Serial destruction
Although in principle protected to the highest degree by the state, several important historic buildings have continued to disappear in recent years. Gaspésie’s oldest home, the Busteed House, succumbed to criminal efforts to burn it down, despite public calls for it to be guarded. Same thing for the Taschereau manor, in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, also the victim of an arson following its abandonment. The mill on Île Verte, although officially protected since 1962 by the State, was almost completely destroyed with the help of a mechanical shovel.
In the bosom of the municipalities, the landscape is hardly more brilliant. Despite several warnings in favor of its preservation, the house of the patriot René Boileau, in Chambly, was destroyed. A simple park, inaugurated in recent days, has replaced it. In Quebec, the Livernois house is another example of “the real lack of control municipalities have over their heritage,” says historian Catherine Ferland of the Société d’histoire Les Rivières. Also in Quebec, the Paquet house, dating from 1698, and the Saint-Coeur-de-Marie church were also demolished.
The City of Mascouche hastily demolished a rare 18th century manore century. In many municipalities, several old residences, such as the 1760 house inhabited by the actor Hector Charland, have been razed. Even the historic home of Paul Gouin, one of the pioneers of the defense of heritage, has been moved unceremoniously to make way for a real estate project, along the river.
Moments of amazement
One of the major disappointments in recent years has undoubtedly been the untimely demolition of one of the jewels of modern architecture in Quebec: the Domaine-de-l’Estérel, in Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson. Despite several calls to act in favor of the preservation of this exceptional building, it was left in almost complete abandonment, then subject to the swaying of real estate transactions. Everything finally happened, under the action of two large mechanical shovels. The damage was already done when the situation was denounced by Minister Roy.
The sale, by the Quebec government, of the Chevalier house, an emblem of the State for more than 60 years, also shocked. Located in the heart of the historic district of Petit-Champlain in Quebec, this residence was restored at great expense by the State, under the direction of Gérard Morisset, a name now given to the highest distinction awarded by Quebec in terms of protection and enhancement of heritage.
Since 1956, the Chevalier house has been considered one of the jewels of the national heritage. A survey of To have to reveals that the buyer of this public good, the Tanguay Group, was ready to take advantage of its entry into the Council of Ministers to speed up the sale in its favor. The deal was concluded for 2.2 million, below the market value of the building. At the same time, the Quebec government announced that it wanted to restore at great expense, in each administrative region, buildings in order to transform them into “Blue Spaces”, cultural and heritage places dedicated, according to its words, to “enhancing our history, our heroines and our heroes, from all walks of life and from all eras.
In Beauce
Many of the oldest homes on the banks of the Chaudière River have been razed, on the initiative of the government, as part of a program put in place to resolve periodic flooding. In the aftermath, approximately 700 houses were demolished at great expense, without the heritage value of these residences or an examination of a solution favorable to their conservation being made.
Gaston Cadrin, from the Group for Initiatives and Research Applied to the Environment, considers that the Government of Quebec has rushed its action in Beauce, by “sweeping away the problem of flooding at the same time as the history of the region”. A series of 19th century residencese century has been destroyed one after the other, he observes, “without even talking about the environment, recovery”, while it is established that the destruction of buildings is everywhere one of the most important sources of waste.
Does this general situation of Quebec heritage reflect a fundamentally new relationship with the past? In 1885 already, the writer Joseph-Guillaume Barthe indicated that in this country, under the pretext that buildings require repairs, “and under the guise of savings”, we raze everything we want to raze.
Commitments for the future?
There has been little mention so far in the election campaign of the importance of preserving and enhancing heritage. What does the CAQ offer? Despite several reminders to find out, The duty was told that the party of François Legault will have the opportunity to present its commitments “in terms of heritage preservation soon”.
“In terms of heritage protection, the measures proposed by the CAQ have not worked,” proclaims the Quebec Liberal Party, which considers the matter primarily in terms of money. The PLQ argues that preservation is more profitable overall than demolition. “There is an urgent need to act effectively in order to have their owners and municipalities recognize the economic value of heritage buildings. In other words, “the protection of heritage buildings pays off for municipalities in terms of property income, for the local economy in terms of tourism and even beneficial for the environment”. The PLQ intends to offer a ten-year property tax holiday, in the form of compensation to municipalities, “for any owner or purchaser of an unused heritage building who restores it to live in or rent it for residential or commercial purposes” .
For its part, Québec solidaire proposes several enhancement measures. QS is committed to creating a “SEPAQ-patrimoine” to use heritage buildings for tourism and cultural purposes. QS also wishes to create a Permanent Heritage Commission to monitor built, natural, movable, archaeological and intangible heritage.
At the Parti Québécois, it is a question of quickly adopting “an action plan”. For towns and villages, the PQ says it wants to encourage public companies and public services to settle in heritage buildings.
Like the Conservative Party of Quebec, the PQ promises to better support the various historical societies. Among the curators, there is talk of setting up “a program for the preservation of the archives of religious communities”. Under a CAQ government, it should be noted that a project to consolidate the archives of religious communities has already been launched.