What do the municipalities of Cacouna, Acton Vale, Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare, Rivière-Rouge, Saint-Aimé, Matane or Cookshire-Eaton have in common? Like dozens of others, their municipal councils have unanimously adopted resolutions in recent weeks to denounce the insurability deficit suffered by part of their heritage buildings. The Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ) is now urging the government to act on the insurance front in favor of old private houses. The situation is more than urgent, says the UMQ.
“I don’t know how many municipalities have sent copies of resolutions directly to Quebec asking the government to quickly take charge of the issue of the insurability of old houses,” explains the Duty Benoit Lauzon, president of the Commission de la culture of the UMQ and also mayor of the municipality of Thurso. In his opinion, it could already be at least a hundred.
“We are ringing the alarm bell,” says Benoit Lauzon on behalf of the UMQ. “Several owners are no longer able to obtain proper insurance because insurers’ criteria are not adapted to anything other than standards set on current materials, which are not always more resistant, as we know very well, than old materials. . »
The situation is such, indicates the UMQ, that many homeowners have to rely on foreign insurance companies. Failing to see the needs of Quebec citizens understood by insurance companies, many have to turn to online insurers, says the UMQ. “Some owners have to get insurance out of the country, through online companies. It’s made difficult. Sometimes impossible,” laments Mr. Lauzon. In other words, to maintain the core and the pride of towns and villages, we must now rely on interests that are not from here. Which seems illogical to him.
The MRC des Maskoutains sounded the alarm last December. His initiative set fire to the powder. All the municipalities now seem to be concerned about it. In response, the Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, said he was “concerned about the situation experienced by the municipalities”, assuring that “the preservation of our Quebec heritage and therefore of our identity depends on it”. .
Urged to act
However, the situation has not changed. Municipal resolutions, including those of Sacré-Coeur, La Conception, La Présentation, La Durantaye, Fortierville and Saint-Damase, urged him to act. The Municipality of Cacouna, in a resolution adopted on March 6, as an aside to its resolution, indicates to the Duty that it would like “a process to facilitate the insurability of heritage buildings” to be put in place, as written by its director general, Mr.e Felix Berube.
In 2020, the municipality of Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare was strongly criticized for allowing the demolition of an ancestral house in its heart. It is now asking the Government of Quebec to intervene “in order to guarantee, at a reasonable cost, the insurability of all heritage buildings, regardless of the age of the building or of a component, the identification of the building an inventory, its status, its location in the zoning or its submission to regulations aimed at preserving its characteristics”, indicates the secretary at the registry, Ms.me Isabelle Dufresne.
“It is our wealth. It is our living environment. It is our history that is threatened”, regrets Benoit Lauzon, of the UMQ. “The Minister must sit the insurance companies together with the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Requests have been made on our part in this regard. We’re going to extend an invitation to him. At the UMQ, we have prioritized this issue. »
On the side of the association of Friends and owners of old houses of Quebec (APMAQ), we are getting impatient. Noémi Nadeau, spokesperson for APMAQ (unrelated to the author of this text), says she is happy to see “that the municipalities are keeping up the pressure. They are right to ask the government to get involved. »
According to the APMAQ, municipalities “want to help preserve heritage”, which cannot be bad news. “The problem is not limited to the Minister of Culture alone”, indicates the APMAQ. “Other departments are involved. They need to talk to each other, engage in dialogue with the Insurance Bureau of Canada. It presses. Insurers have unfavorable prejudices against old buildings, which must be demystified. »
The Union of Municipalities agrees. “They copy and paste new buildings with old buildings, without taking into account the quality of the materials, their durability, the lifespan, the importance of preserving what we have. Our old buildings must be inhabited and used. Unfortunately, the toolbox we have at the moment is poorly equipped. »
“We need more tools,” said the mayor of Thurso on behalf of the UMQ. “Municipalities have never been committed like this in favor of our heritage. But we need more tools. He recalls that heritage inventories are to be drawn up in the municipalities. “Our goal is to see more buildings protected and cited. That’s how it is with me, anyway. »
In an interview he gave to Duty in recent days, Minister Mathieu Lacombe affirmed that “the government’s means are quite limited, insurance services being provided by private companies”. “But our role, he added in the same breath, is to demystify certain elements that scare insurers. Minister Lacombe also repeated in this interview, like his predecessor Nathalie Roy, that “we cannot protect everything”.