Quebec hotel giant Raymond Malenfant died at the age of 91 on Friday in Montreal, surrounded by his loved ones. During his lifetime, the businessman whose wealth has already amounted to 400 million dollars will have known opulence and setbacks of fortune.
Raymond Malenfant was named “hotelier of the year” in 1987. Until his bankruptcy in the 1990s, he was known in Quebec for his high profile showdown with the union in the mid-1980s.
At the height of his fame, Raymond Malenfant was in charge of nine hotels, six office towers, convention halls and a ski center. He was notably the owner of the Manoir Richelieu in Charlevoix, the Fort Garry hotel in Winnipeg and several Universal hotels, including one in Florida.
“He was a builder, my father,” told Press his daughter Lynn Malenfant.
He was building a first hotel, a second, a third. He built an empire, because he worked, worked, worked. And it was all the time to create jobs, not for money.
Lynn Malenfant, daughter of Raymond Malenfant
The 91-year-old man died at the Sacré-Coeur hospital early in the afternoon on Friday, surrounded by his children. He had been admitted to hospital with kidney failure, then tested positive for COVID-19. He also had prostate cancer and had suffered 17 heart attacks in his life. “It was a cat, father,” said Lynn Malenfant, with a small smile in her voice. “He was a fighter. ”
From medicine to hotels
It was first of all medicine that fascinated the young Raymond Malenfant, originally from Saint-Hubert, near Rivière-du-Loup, in Bas-Saint-Laurent. Child of the interwar period, born October 6, 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression, he studied medicine for four years in Paris and Lille before losing interest. The young man then turned to the Canadian army, where he learned the basics of English.
It is finally on the field of construction and business that the man has set his sights. “In 1965 he had his first hotel and my mother [Colette Perron] always supported him, ”recalls Lynn Malenfant, who was born the same year. Thanks to a loan of $ 10,000 from a former army companion, the man acquired land on Chemin Sainte-Foy, in the suburbs of Quebec, where he built his first motel. Then, in 1966, he obtained a mortgage loan of $ 300,000. The 20 years that followed were good for the Malenfant family.
“He listened to the radio and TV in his room, he watched, then at one point he created,” recalls Lynn Malenfant.
Union dispute at Manoir Richelieu
In 1986, Raymond Malenfant decided to acquire the Manoir Richelieu, in Charlevoix, to renovate it. “He thought it was a good idea, but it was so hard,” regrets Lynn Malenfant.
This acquisition puts Raymond Malenfant at the forefront of Quebec news, due to the clashes between him and the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) for several years.
The businessman, in fact, chooses not to rehire the unionized employees of the hotel after his purchase. In 1986, the conflict even resulted in one death, Gaston Harvey, during an altercation with the Sûreté du Québec.
“He won at the Supreme Court, but in the end, he lost everything,” said Lynn Malenfant.
In 1990, the Malenfant Group acquired three establishments, requiring an investment of 40 million dollars, of which it had not found 10 million. Between government loans, municipal taxes, high interest rates, the tax system and the recession, Raymond Malenfant had to declare bankruptcy in 1992.
“It was very sad. This is where the heart attacks started, says Lynn Malenfant. It was his life that he saw changing, and he did not get over it. ”
The gene for happiness
In 2001, Raymond Malenfant suffered a serious head trauma after being hit by a car in Laval. For the past seven years he has lived with two of his children, his wife feeling too tired to be able to take care of him. “I was lucky to live 100% with him,” says Lynn Malenfant. He was my hero. ”
In 2011, a four-hour miniseries, directed by Ricardo Trogi, Malenfant, explores the history of the family. It is broadcast on the Séries + channel. Luc Picard plays the role of Raymond Malenfant.
Then, this year, the businessman was reunited with his wife again when they found themselves in the same retirement home. “We had a miracle, because we found a place for them and they found themselves together. It was like that, ”describes Lynn Malenfant.
Despite his setback, Raymond Malenfant was a happy man. “He wasn’t a man talking about the past. He wasn’t bitter, remembers Lynn Malenfant. He was such a Zen man, because he was in the present and in the future, and he continued to be that way all his life. He would get up in a good mood, go to bed in a good mood. He had the gene for happiness. ”