Church conversion runs into a wall

Robert Everett-Green writes in the Globe and Mail about the difficulty churches are facing in Quebec in paying for upkeep, even despite government subsidies.

An example why it’s so difficult to convert churches for other purposes: a man who wants to turn the cavernous, disused Saint-Alphonse-d’Youville church – on Crémazie near the metro station – into a combined concert hall and coworking space finds himself stymied by the borough’s order that he redo the roof in copper, a major expense.