Closed to the general public for 15 years, the Indo-Australian greenhouse of the former zoological garden will indeed fall under the peak of the demolishers within a few weeks, confirms the City of Quebec, which will not play the savior.
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Built at a cost of $ 14 million, this large-scale glazed infrastructure has been abandoned since 2006. Those who demanded its rescue, pleading for a second life and a new vocation, are extremely disappointed and are already crying scandal.
Discussions between the City of Quebec and the Premiers-Seigneuries School Services Center, owner of the premises, did not make it possible to find a solution to keep the greenhouse, inaugurated in 2002.
Photo Jean-Luc Lavallée
Louis-XIV District Councilor Marie-Pierre Boucher (QFF) and Charlesbourg Borough President Claude Lavoie (QFF) confirmed the inevitable demolition of the Indo-Australian greenhouse on Thursday at a meeting press release at the Charlesbourg Borough Office.
The new mayor Bruno Marchand had prepared the spirits in the last weeks. He admitted having “few powers” and a “limited role” since the land does not belong to the City but to the First Seigneuries School Services Center, which inherited the land from the provincial government last June.
At a press conference on Thursday, the president of the borough council Claude Lavoie (EMJS) confirmed the fate that awaits the greenhouse. “We are not here this morning with no joy of heart. We would have preferred to give you positive news, but given all the information we have received, deconstruction will take place. ”
Preparatory work has already started. The “deconstruction” of the greenhouse will take place next January, confirmed the School Services Center. “The site will be restored in an ecological manner. A maximum of materials will be recovered or recycled, including a tree-fountain from the greenhouse which will be integrated into an outdoor classroom. Note that the reception building will be kept to serve the community, ”it was stated in a press release.
Consultation for the future of the site
The City will have a role to play for the future of the site. “We are really going to sit down after the holidays with the School Service Center to find a new vocation for this site,” he said. “What is important for us now is to see what we are doing and to involve citizens,” added Councilor Marie-Pierre Boucher (QFF), who sits on the executive committee.
In another joint press release, the City and the School Services Center confirm that the citizens of Quebec will once again have access to this “living space” in the future. The development of the premises will be the subject of “broad citizen participation”. In the past, it should be remembered, many calls for projects were “unsuccessful” concerning the greenhouse. Deconstruction was “the only possible solution”, it is claimed.
The City, obviously, never really considered acquiring the building which would have required renovations of $ 7.5 million, in addition to annual maintenance costs of several hundred thousand dollars. . What is more, the deconstruction of the greenhouse is a “preliminary” step to the construction of the two schools that will be built on the site, said Ms. Boucher, since the land will be used in part for the development of a retention basin. .
The CAQ is “responsible”, says Dorion
The reactions did not take long. Quebec Solidaire deputy Catherine Dorion, who campaigned for the preservation of the greenhouse, accused Jonatan Julien and Geneviève Guilbault of the Caquist government of being “really responsible” for this demolition, accusing them of not wanting to hear from the many citizens. mobilized.
In the past few weeks, more than 13,500 people signed a petition hoping to save the infrastructure.
Several pressure groups had also denounced the demolition planned by the School Services Center, which refuses to invest more in the maintenance of the unused greenhouse, preferring to concentrate its financial resources on student services.
Mme Dorion also deplored the “lack of combativeness” of the new mayor of Quebec Bruno Marchand in this file. “I very much hope that this posture is not the omen of the next four years.”
A “shameless waste”
For its part, the Jardins de la Capitale organization is not throwing stone at the new Marchand administration but rather at the government and the leaders of the School Services Center who “did not see the opportunity” to revitalize this greenhouse ” unique in America ”.
“It’s a public scandal. This is shameless waste on the part of the Government of Quebec and then a total lack of openness of the First Seigneuries School Services Center. The City of Quebec has done a lot of things to try to open the minds of these people … There was frightening pressure on the City by the government of Quebec, ”responded Michel Lagacé in an interview.