The Old Terrebonne soon declared heritage site?

The entire historic heart of the city of Terrebonne, north of Montreal, could be added shortly to the repertoire of cultural heritage of Quebec (RPCQ).

This is what a recommendation of the Minister of Culture and Communications suggests, Mathieu Lacombe, dated June 20 and published in the Gazette official Wednesday.

A public consultation, the terms of which will be announced in a few weeks, will now have to be organized by the Quebec Cultural Heritage Council to collect the opinions of citizens.

The file will then take the way to the Council of Ministers. It is he who, ultimately, will decide whether a decree must be signed to declare the old terrebonne heritage site. The decision must be taken within three years, specifies article 58 of the Cultural Heritage Act.

The file had been launched at the end of 2020 by the predecessor of Mathieu Lacombe, Nathalie Roy, who is now president of the National Assembly. Residents, at the time, were concerned about maintaining the heritage of Old Terrebonne.

A successful example of rehabilitation

The project aims to register the entire district to RPCQwhile certain material goods which are there-like the house Bélisle, which dates before the conquest of 1759-1760, as well as all the heritage buildings of Île-des-Moulins-are already classified in the repertoire.

Knowledge, protection, development and transmission of the heritage site of Old Terrebonne are of public interest because of its historical, archaeological, urban, architectural and landscape heritage valuessums up Minister Lacombe in his recommendation.

The site, he also writes, is considered to be a successful example of rehabilitation of an old district on a Quebec scaleand it is, as such, often cited as an example. Hence his desire to formally register it in the RPCQ.

This protection would be added to that already offered by the City of Terrebonne which, under a regulation adopted in 2021, has already cited sixty goods and buildings on value exceptional or superiorseveral of which are in the historic heart of the municipality.

If declaring a heritage site makes it possible to better protect the goods and the buildings there, such a status can however cause headache for the owners.

Renovations, for example, can cost more, and insurers can increase the price of their fonts, or even refuse to cover the buildings in question.

The city of Terrebonne, that said, has been offering financial aid for the owners of buildings for a few years who are classified as RPCQ or cited by it.

Declaring the Old Terrebonne as a heritage site would also allow individuals, non-profit organizations and the municipality to take advantage of the government’s fixed assets (PAI) program, which provides for subsidies for restoration and preservation of certain buildings.