Another $34.4 million for heritage restoration

By Gordon Lambie – Local Journalism Initiative
Another $34.4 million for heritage restoration
Richmond MNA André Bachand, Sherbrooke Mayor Évelyne Beaudin, Culture and Communications Minister Nathalie Roy, Saint-François MNA Geneviève Hébert, and Granit MNA François Jacques in Sherbrooke on Thursday (Photo : Gordon Lambie)

Quebec’s Culture and Communications Minister, Nathalie Roy, was in Sherbrooke on Thursday to announce an additional $34.4 million for the protection and restoration of heritage buildings across the province. Provided through the Programme de soutien au milieu municipal en patrimoine immobilier, or municipal heritage property support program, the new funds come in addition to $52 million made available when the fund was first created in 2019.

“We have a duty to love these (heritage) buildings, to protect them and to recognize their value,” Roy said. “Not only are these buildings nice to look at, but they help to tell the stories of our society.”

As was the case with the first round of funding, the new money is being made available through a series of agreements with municipalities and counties, each of which will match the funds received for projects within their own territories.

Six such agreements have been signed within the Eastern Townships, in Sherbrooke and Magog as well as in the Coaticook, Haut-Saint-François, Granit, and Val-Saint-François MRCs, accounting for $4.8 million of the $34.4 million total. Of that regional total, 3.2 million have been set aside for Sherbrooke.

“Heritage is a collective treasure and our role as a city is to protect it,” said Évelyne Beaudin, mayor of Sherbrooke
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