When will Bon-Pasteur monastery be rebuilt? Groups that called it home are asking

A year after a fire burned through a 19th-century former monastery for three days in downtown Montreal, organizations and housing co-operatives that occupied the space say they are losing hope of regaining their home any time soon. 

"The only thing that's been done has been to secure the building. That and only that," said Matilde Fraga, who manages Maison Aurélie-Cadotte, a residence for low-income people over the age of 55 inside the Monastère du Bon-Pasteur.

The residence had 38 units inside the sprawling monastery, and the average age of its members was 78 years old. Many of them had been living in their units for decades and struggled to find another home. They had to settle for smaller, more expensive apartments and, in some cases, living with roommates, Fraga said. 

"We didn't have as much help from the city as we would have hoped," she said. 

Two of the units were occupied by couples, and a man in one of them has since died.

"He would always ask, 'When are we going home?' Meaning the monastery. It's clear the fire didn't help keep him with us," said Fraga, who says that along with other organizations she has been working tirelessly to get the ball rolling on reconstruction.

Plans to rebuild the residence inside the historic monastery have already been completed. They include a new firewall and reinforcing structural columns, but Fraga says she no longer knows who to turn to for funding. Talks with the city and provincial government have stalled as the two deal with legal disputes concerning the building.

In addition to Maison Aurélie-Cadotte, the heritage building near the corner of Sherbrooke and de Bullion streets was home to a housing co-operative, a daycare and condominiums. 

It had also been the site of one of Montreal's most revered classical music venues, La Chapelle du Bon-Pasteur.

Dominic Trudel, head of the Conseil québécois de la musique, says that while the Chapelle's concerts are now being held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture on Baile Street, musicians that used to record at the monastery have lost the space to do so.

The monastery had acted as a burgeoning place for young and up-and-coming musicians to practise their craft, as well as a chance to develop a name and receive opportunities in the industry. 

The building was turned over to non-profits and community groups in the 1980s. It was a way of sharing the province's heritage with its people, said Trudel, who worries that vocation could be lost.

"We have to make sure that when they will rebuild the place, that they will keep the concept, that they will keep the spirit of it and make sure that it was as great as it was before," he said. 

Fraga remembers how, after the fire, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante had said she was confident Bon-Pasteur could be rebuilt. She pointed to the rebuilding of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in France, which, five years after a huge fire destroyed it, is nearly complete in its reconstruction.