“We can’t protect everything,” insists the Minister of Culture when asked about the protection of heritage. But while ancestral buildings in poor condition regularly make headlines across Quebec, Mathieu Lacombe recognizes that more can be done to safeguard heritage sites.
“What is important is to protect what really matters,” he summed up Monday, during an interview at the offices of the Duty. “On the one hand, I think it’s unproductive to protect five or six places that have roughly the same vocation and the same history and, on the other hand, to escape places that are unique and fall under the peak of the wreckers, ”he later clarified.
The Minister has let it be known that it is not excluded that the Cultural Heritage Act will be reopened within the next four years to give it more bite, but we do not feel that he is in a great rush to do so. His predecessor, Nathalie Roy, had already amended the law in April 2021, but her reform had been deemed largely insufficient by opposition groups and heritage defense groups.
This obliges, at the very least, regional county municipalities (RCMs) to produce an inventory of buildings built before 1940 on their territory by 2026. The department should then use it to determine what has enough heritage value to be formally protected.
However, MRCs are currently resisting, and Minister Lacombe wanted to call them to order. “Some RCMs are lagging behind at the moment,” he notes. But [d’autres] have already started producing their inventory. At the end [en 2026]we will have a better picture of what we can protect. […] Because at the moment, it is often submitted to us on a small scale, we do not have a complete inventory of what is on the territory. »
Powerless against insurers
In recent months, several major buildings have suffered an unenviable fate. Abandoned for several years, Château Dubuc, in Chandler, was completely swept away by the sea during the passage, this fall in Gaspésie, of hurricane Fiona. In Saint-Gédéon, one of the largest convents in the Beauce is threatened with demolition, the municipality refusing to classify it as a heritage building, because it would have too many financial implications for it.
On the one hand, I think it’s counterproductive to protect five or six places that have more or less the same vocation and the same history and, on the other hand, to escape places that are unique and fall under the peak of the wreckers
Among the brakes often cited to the revitalization of built heritage: insurers, who are more than hesitant to protect old buildings. Thereupon, Minister Lacombe admits a certain impotence.
“The means of the government are quite limited, the insurance services being provided by private companies. But our role is to demystify certain elements that scare insurers,” he explained.
What about blue spaces?
The Blue Spaces project, very dear to the Legault government, is precisely a means of occupying heritage buildings for which it is difficult to find a function. Ultimately, a Blue Space must be established in each region of Quebec with the mandate to promote “Quebec pride”, for example by honoring key figures from popular culture.
But faced with the cost overruns of the first Blue Spaces announced, the Minister is putting the pedal to the metal on the establishment of the network across Quebec. One thing is certain, the 17 administrative regions will not all have their Blue Space in 2026, during the next elections.
“Costs are a concern, and I follow that closely. I’m not hiding it: we’re going to review the schedule. Within four years, I hope that we will have completed the Blue Spaces of Quebec, Charlevoix, Abitibi and Gaspésie. I also hope that we will have announced others. But to think that the network can be completed in 2026, it’s just physically impossible, ”underlines Mathieu Lacombe, without giving a precise timetable.
From the start, the museum community has watched with concern the establishment of the Espaces bleus network. The project is criticized for competing with existing regional museums, which already complain of a lack of resources.
“The Blue Spaces are not museums, they are places of cultural dissemination. These will not be places where we go to see works hung on a wall. […] We want to pass on to people this knowledge of the great figures in our history who make us proud to be Quebecers. And this offer does not currently exist everywhere in Quebec, ”he defends ardently.