The Government of Quebec intends to “promote the insurability of heritage buildings”, but it will not do so through a public insurance plan.
The Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, ruled out this possibility on Wednesday, a few minutes after supporting a motion by the Parti Québécois asking him to act so that insurers become more involved in old buildings. “This is not at all what is envisaged for the moment,” he replied to a journalist who asked him if the State could itself insure its buildings with heritage value.
“It’s not the government’s job,” he said.
Municipalities and RCMs in Quebec are increasingly coming up against overcautious insurers when it comes time to protect their built environment. Last year, the MRC des Maskoutains also raised in a letter to Minister Lacombe its difficulties in convincing insurance companies to invest in buildings of historical value.
In interview with The duty at the beginning of the month, the elected representative of the Coalition avenir Québec had admitted a certain impotence in the file. “The means of the government are quite limited, the insurance services being provided by private companies,” he said.
However, the government of the Coalition avenir Québec positioned itself favorably on Wednesday to a motion requiring “actions to promote the insurability of heritage buildings in Quebec”. “There is work that can be done with insurers to make them aware of what it really means to have an old house and what it also implies in terms of costs, for example”, pleaded Mr. Lacombe in a scrum in Quebec.
If these awareness-raising measures do not bear fruit, Quebec has in hand “other tools in [son] safe, ”he continued. “We can accompany an insurance broker to give him perhaps more information, better support. We can offer our services,” he said without giving further details.