As I write these lines, 11:30 p.m., exactly one year ago on May 25, 2023, when I saw the flames approaching the wing of our building, I understood that our “home” no longer existed: we were 44 people from the Sourire à la vie cooperative, from children to great-grandparents, literally on the street.
A year later, the Bon-Pasteur community, this village made up of members of the housing cooperative and the elders of Maison Aurélie-Cadotte (84 people and 65 households), as well as the organizations hosted by the building, is dismantled. The reconstruction project is still on the street.
The Monastery of the Good Shepherd, in addition to its undeniable heritage value, is an exemplary urban planning project: housing cooperative, CPE, housing for seniors, condominiums, non-profit organizations — notably Les Impatients, Héritage Montréal, and of course the historic Chapel of the Bon-Pasteur, the cultural and artistic center with its accessible concert hall — have coexisted there since the mid-1980s and have contributed to the city’s influence. The emblematic character of the Bon-Pasteur community no longer needs to be demonstrated: it is deeply anchored in the history and reality of downtown Montreal.
This exceptional building with its block of houses, which the City inherited in 1979, came with a mission of social diversity in the image of what our city has become — and it is in these roots that we understand the importance of the reconstruction project today: it is the symbolic mirror of this Montreal reality.
The fire which ravaged the Good Shepherd monastery on May 25, 2023 not only scattered 65 families to the four winds, but it destroyed a creative and united community which, since 1985, had been able to develop a unique social diversity project integrating seniors, people with disabilities, first and second generation immigrants and single-parent families.
Volunteering, in the emergency of rehousing and through the long series of bereavements to be done, our members mobilized from the first days to respect the obligations which followed and to ensure the safeguarding of the building. Since then, we have worked daily to combine our forces to begin the reconstruction process as quickly as possible.
We have been tirelessly committed to carrying out this large-scale reconstruction project. In recent months, we have recruited professionals (architects, engineers, TSOs) and requested various community resources to support us and carry out this reconstruction as quickly as possible.
However, today, we are worried: in all likelihood, the reconstruction project will cost us several million dollars due in particular to the heritage specificities of the building and the requirements that come with this classification. Today, it is essential that extraordinary avenues of financing and support be opened by the different levels of government in order to finance this project, itself extraordinary.
We want to remind here that the Ministry of Culture and Communications has made this project a priority file: we simply ask all levels of government to take action so that the reconstruction advances and that the 84 inhabitants of Bon-Pasteur can return to their living environment as quickly as possible.
The housing crisis is real and tangible for our community, which finds itself in great precariousness. “I find it very hard,” said one of the members of the cooperative: “we do everything voluntarily so that the reconstruction moves forward. So we really need the institutions to walk their talk now! »
In this context of crisis, dramatic according to the CMHC, it is clear that public administrations have a duty to protect cooperative and community housing projects on their territories. What’s more, when volunteers carry out such a reconstruction project at arm’s length, it is clear that government administrations must also support us.
At this stage, our team of professionals in action can deliver more than 66 social housing units in 2026 with the support of all levels of government: we are just waiting for them to make a financial commitment to implement the promised support, and contribute thus reducing waiting lists for community housing.
