Church collects fines for urbex
Saint-Eusèbe-de-Verceil church, on Fullum in eastern Ville‑Marie, is closed as a church and decrepit as a building, but is accumulating fines because people keep sneaking in for urbex.
Also reported later by CTV, which partly blames social media.
Ephraim 11:54 on 2025-05-20 Permalink
We won’t get real reform until we force it. We can’t just declare a building a heritage building unless someone (ie the city) is willing to spend the money for it’s upkeep. We need in place a law which allows owners to donate a building and it’s land to the city for the value on the role foncière. In case of a church, at a minimum, for the value of the land. And then, as city property, the city has to decide if it’s going to actually spend the money for the upkeep or let someone redevelop. Or redevelop with conditions. But letting buildings decay to the point of their being dangerous and collapse, isn’t a real solution.
Kate 19:57 on 2025-05-20 Permalink
I’ve commented on Saint-Eusèbe before. It must be nearly ten years ago I walked around it and took some photos – it wasn’t fenced off as firmly then, but I didn’t risk going inside. It’s a big building and there’s a presbytery next door which could have been converted into a dozen dwellings if it had been worked on before falling into ruin. But both buildings will absolutely have to be taken down.
The problem for the city is finding ways to build residential units effectively. They’ve bought up buildings and spaces and nothing progresses – there needs to be synchronized efforts between all three levels of government to push this forward, as apparently there was after World War II when returning soldiers needed places to live and start families. Only not little single-family bungalows like last time.
Of course, Quebec won’t want Canada stepping in, this time, so it will all get hung up on the jurisdictional mess while people cannot find places to live.
Ephraim 11:11 on 2025-05-21 Permalink
@Kate – Which is why I have suggested partnering with a REIT, which has an infrastructure to do exactly this. Yes, they are for profit, but they have everything to do repairs, manage payments, etc. Take for example CAPREIT (Ticker is CAR.UN). Most famous building they operate in Montreal is likely the Olympic Village. https://www.capreit.ca/neighbourhood/montreal/
Basically, all the expertise and it has to answer to shareholders. You can see who owns the biggest blocks. But basically their owners are mostly interested in their yield. Which at the moment is about 3.65% and being a unit trust has a lower tax rate than dividends in Quebec. When they need to raise money, they can put out more units (not stock). And it increase the amount of availability they have. And if government wants to subsidize housing, they can pay part of the rent with the reassurance that the upkeep is done.
We have clearly shown that the SHDM can’t manage buildings. They don’t invest enough in maintenance.