By 7 votes to 6, the Sherbrooke Municipal Council on Tuesday rejected the proposal made by the mayor’s team to provide the district of Fleurimont, on the eastern outskirts of the city, with its very first municipal library. Sherbrooke remains at the back of the pack of large cities in Quebec in terms of access to quality libraries.
The elected officials of Mayor Évelyne Beaudin were not able to convince their counterparts of the merits of reconverting a heritage church in the neighborhood to transform it into a modern cultural space. The municipal administration planned to submit a grant request for this purpose in the coming days from the federal government.
The refusal of the majority in the municipal council puts an end to hopes of soon counting on 17 million dollars to initiate the reconversion.
It is a nail in the coffin to finally provide this important district with a library, believes columnist Mickaël Bergeron of the local daily The Tribune. Mr. Bergeron closely followed the file. According to him, “technically, no one has rejected the idea of a library in Fleurimont, however, the rejection of a submission for a possible federal grant amounts to a rejection of the project on the table. Needless to say, Fleurimont is not about to see a library for many years. In 2040, perhaps?
Cost and the environment
Professor emeritus of the UQAM design school and president of Docomomo Québec, Francine Vanlaethem visited the Sainte-Famille church, which was to serve as the basis for the project. For this specialist in modern architecture, “the building had a lot of potential. There are benefits to renovating buildings. I think that there is now a conjunction between heritage preservation and climate action: when there is an opportunity to save a building and give it a new use is possible, we must take it,” she believes. .
Mme Vanlaethem closely followed the debates of Sherbrooke elected officials on the subject of the reconversion of this church considered “exceptional” by the Religious Heritage Council. “The debate was very civilized, but the issue of demolition and the problems it brings was not heard. What’s scary is the cost.”
In his opinion, this is not looking at the file as a whole. “Conserving what exists allows us to avoid the production of greenhouse gases that any new construction involves. In addition, it reduces the pressure exerted on landfill sites by demolition waste.” For her, the benefit of a similar project of reconversion of an important church in the city’s landscape should not be considered only based on the immediate bill.
In terms of public libraries, the City of Sherbrooke suffers, in all respects, from a serious deficit compared to comparable Quebec municipalities.
The 47,000 citizens of the Fleurimont district do not have access to a local library, even though they represent approximately 27% of the city’s population. Indicators regarding libraries show that Sherbrooke is far behind other cities, as previously reported Duty.