The survival of the Eglise du Très-Saint-Sacrement, in Quebec, could sign the death warrant of the parish that owns it. The latter estimates that the bill to repair and maintain the holy place will reach 16.5 million dollars in 2032, a burden that threatens to force it into bankruptcy and compromises the conservation of other churches with greater heritage value.
At the end of May, after two years of procrastination and public pressure, the Minister of Culture, Nathalie Roy, saved the Church of the Very Holy Sacrament from probable demolition by classifying it in the register of cultural heritage of Quebec.
A decision greeted with exasperation by the parish of Bienheureuse-Dina-Bélanger. In 2017, part of the church collapsed, fortunately without causing any injuries. Its nave welcomed its last faithful in September 2019. Since then, the building has been condemned, empty and awaiting urgent repairs.
The church is in agony, the parish has been crying out for years. Its ranking, she laments today, now makes it a money pit.
An increased bill
The Minister based her decision on a technical expert report commissioned from the firm EVOQ and presented on May 6. The document concludes that “the building appears stable and in good condition”. He nevertheless recommends that a “major rehabilitation campaign” be undertaken “in the short term in order to allow the safe reopening of the building to the public”.
The government has promised four million dollars to carry out the work deemed to be a priority, an amount which corresponds to the estimate mentioned by EVOQ in its report. However, the parish calculates that the price of the site is likely to explode.
This is because the evaluations transmitted by EVOQ exclude several costs likely to inflate the invoice. The firm itself mentions, in its report, not to take into account certain expenses inherent to the construction site.
“The horizon of achievement and the program to be developed according to the available budgets represent considerable variables which can significantly affect the evaluation of these costs”, she takes the trouble to specify.
The parish itself calculated the price of the site, this time including professional fees, taxes, management fees and inflation. Result: the emergency works will no longer cost 4 million dollars, as mentioned in the report, but will exceed 6.5 million. If the parish’s estimate turns out to be correct, the envelope promised by Minister Roy will no longer be enough and the parish will have to pay $2.5 million to pay the difference.
The sustainability works, which the firm proposes to amortize “over the longest possible period” because of their cost “often out of reach of the owner”, undergo the same increase by virtue of the calculations of the parish.
Estimated at $5.5 million in the EVOQ report, this work rises to $10 million taking into account the projected price increase and the various expenses excluded by the firm. The parish makes this calculation by projecting inflation of 5% until 2023, then 2% for subsequent years until 2032.
“La Fabrique had estimated the cost of repairing the old church of the Very Holy Sacrament at around 10 million dollars, writes the parish. Upon reading the EVOQ report, she realizes that she had underestimated these costs. She’s sorry about that. »
Other churches in peril
When the parish was estimating the price of the work at $10 million, it was already saying that this financial burden “could be an insurmountable obstacle […] which is very likely to drive it towards bankruptcy”.
The cost to the parish of preserving the Très-Saint-Sacrement church now compromises the sustainability of the two other places of worship under its direction, namely the Saint-Charles-Garnier church and the Saint-Michel-de-Saint-Michel church. -Sillery. The heritage value of the first, according to the inventory of places of worship carried out in 2003, is “exceptional” – greater than the value of the Church of the Very Holy Sacrament, considered “superior”.
However, the parish recently condemned the Saint-Charles-Garnier church. The scarcity of the faithful, coupled with the apprehension of having to devour a fortune in the repair of the Church of the Most Holy Sacrament in the event of its classification, motivated the decision announced on May 15.
Regulars of the Saint-Charles-Garnier church now deplore its imminent closure. The Philharmonic Ensemble of the Capital had in particular made its nest there.
“We have until June 20 to leave our premises! deplores its director, François-Olivier Loignon, in a letter sent to the To have to. For a community orchestra like ours, it is not only a loss, but also a source of several inconveniences since we have to find new premises adapted to orchestral practice. »
Without new money, the parish says it is short of means to maintain and repair its steeples. No government program helps the parish to offset the costs of maintaining the Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Due to its status, the factory is ineligible for the requalification program for heritage religious buildings. Now that she has an obligation to protect the huge Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament and only four million public dollars to do so, she wonders, more and more, which saint to turn to.