The next tourist season in Percé, in Gaspésie, is likely to be very special. The tourist information office will not open, just like the local museum. On the other hand, the Blue Space, the first of its kind in Quebec, should welcome its first visitors. However, this newcomer is not at all unanimous in the region.
In this cold month of January, a handful of workers are busy inside the Frederick-James villa. The roof and exterior cladding of the residence built around 1888 have been refurbished. At the moment, cabinetmakers are working to restore the interior of this old artists’ house to its original condition, located at the top of the cape which overlooks the Percé rock. The workers questioned by The duty They hope to complete their work by this summer.
The transformation was costly. Nearly 26 million dollars were swallowed up in this project, which began with the movement of around twenty meters of the building threatened by erosion. Then, the workers placed this future Blue Space on a large concrete basement. A bunker-like entrance will welcome visitors.
No one in Percé is able to know the content of the upcoming exhibition. Not even the mayor, Cathy Poirier. “Who will manage this? I don’t even know,” she says, while describing this renovation as “commendable”.
Asked about the progress of the project by THE Dutyat the start of the year, the Ministry of Culture was stingy with information.
The construction site has also demolished the road which runs along the cape. The asphalt should be redone this spring or fall by the City of Percé, but at the government’s expense, according to the mayor. A parking lot should in principle swallow up part of this postcard landscape. Here again, residents of the tourist capital of Gaspésie are kept in the dark about the details.
One opens, the other closes
While this new museum is due to open, the Le Chafaud museum, also located in Percé, will not open its doors this summer. A first since opening in 1983, 40 years ago.
“This is the first summer that we haven’t opened, unless someone comes forward,” laments the man who runs the local institution at arm’s length, Jean-Louis Lebreux. Some young people offered to take over the reins of the museum, but the “working conditions” and the lack of support from the government quickly discouraged her.
More than the lack of support for museums already in place, it is the reconversion of a creative house into a venue that discourages Mr. Lebreux. “In this place which has inspired so many artists, there is no space for creation. » The Frederick-James villa actually first housed the work of the painter of the same name. Then, Laval University held art and architecture courses there until 2015.
The mayor of Percé is of the same opinion and would have liked to see it as a place of creation.
“There is unease throughout Percé,” summarizes Jean-Louis Lebreux.
No tourist office in Percé this summer
Another closure in Percé: the tourist information office. Budgetary constraints prevent the municipality from injecting the $168,000 it needs to operate.
“It’s heartbreaking,” says the Duty Cathy Poirier, who says she is actively looking for solutions and ready to provide the building and a human resource to anyone who wants it. “It’s not a punishment. Financially, I have unavoidable expenses. We cannot cut the fire services. We do not have a choice. »
Keeping this office open would require an additional 4.5% increase in taxes, she explains, while citizens’ bills must already increase by 7%. Tourists passing through Gaspésie this summer will have to fend for themselves to discover the gems that this tourist hotspot holds.