Lévis: market gardeners forced to demolish an apartment lodging foreign workers

The owners of a vegetable farm in Lévis denounce the zeal of the municipal administration, which forces them to demolish a residence used to house foreign workers, evoking a non-compliance with the plans provided during the granting of the construction permit to the former owner.

Sonia Ruel and Frédérick Brochu bought the properties of 400 and 411, Chemin Saint-Roch, in Lévis, five years ago. It is the farm, apartment and earth kiosk.

“It has always been a vegetable farm. When the first owner built in 2011, he submitted plans to the city, saying that the section which is an apartment was going to be a transformation, storage and offices room. But he made it an apartment that he lived almost 10 years old, ”explains M^me Ruel.

The section of the apartment was not occupied in the first years of acquisition. However, the needs have changed.

“When we started to grow, to increase our production, we brought in foreign workers that we stay in this apartment,” continues the co -owner.

When purchasing, m^me Ruel and Mr. Brochu had been made by irregularity as to the presence of an apartment which did not respect the plans given by the former owner.

“But the City and the Commission for the Protection of the Agricultural Territory of Quebec (CPTAQ) had said that it was going to be a banality to settle when we would prove that the land would be exploited in a agricultural manner, so we bought,” said Mr.^me Ruel.

Complicated move

They recently asked the City to soften the application of the regulations in order to preserve the vocation of housing, which was refused.

“They ask us, to date yesterday, to release our foreign workers within one month and to dismantle everything. They could soften the regulations, but they judge that the character of the apartment is too permanent, ”she is indignant.

The owners are therefore forced to find between two and three dwellings to relocate their workers, while the city is not spared by the housing crisis.

Unforeseen additional costs and lost time on the move that the owners may well do.

“The city would allow me to put a kind of mobile house to keep my foreign workers, while I already have a house, it is nonsense. Today, if the apartment did not exist, I would apply for a license to the city and I would be given the right to build one. ”

The city of Lévis indicates that it has made its decision according to the new rules in Quebec on workers’ safety.

“There is a great boiling of the sector and a rebracpage of the rules of the game in this field of activity,” says Michel Thisdel, spokesperson, adding that the safety of workers is the subject of it.

However, in relation to new information concerning bill 86, the city says it again analyzes this specific file.

“We will be able to see if the process should be revised,” finishes the spokesperson.