Montreal looking to bump up accountability for vacant-building owners

There are reportedly hundreds of vacant buildings in Montreal, many of which are heritage sites. A proposed bylaw from the city aims to turn up the heat on the owners of those buildings to make sure they're being taken care of. 

A security perimeter on Ste-Catherine St. has been in place for more than a month and a half after concerns arose that the Jaeger heritage building could crumble.

“We don’t want any more situations like those ones,” said Ericka Alneus, City of Montreal executive committee member.

“It really gives some tools to make sure that we really send a message to landlords, that it is important that they are taking care of their buildings,” she said.

Under the new rules, landlords would be required to keep vacant buildings heated at a minimum of 10 degrees Celsius, install exterior lighting, and block all access points.

Property owners would also pay a fee to register their vacant buildings, so that the city can keep a tally.

According to city officials, there are about 800 vacant structures on the island, and an estimated 150 of those are considered heritage sites.

“In recent months, and even years, I have seen too many cases where years of neglect have led to the demolition of exceptional buildings,” said Robert Beaudry, who’s also on the executive committee.

Heritage Montreal has been pushing for these types of changes for years while historic buildings sit derelict.

“The words that come to mind are ‘at last,’” said Heritage Montreal spokesperson Dinu Bumbaru. The organization says the draft bylaw would help increase the chance for those old buildings to find new uses. 

“These are things that are going to help those heritage buildings that will require a little quiet time between two uses,” said Bubaru.

Fines for non-compliance range from $2,000 to $250,000. City inspectors would have to enforce the laws, but official opposition party Ensemble Montreal is worried about staffing.

“We didn't have enough inspectors to do the job with this bylaw. How are we going to implement it?” asked party leader Aref Salem.

“How are we going to enforce, or do more inspections, if we don’t have … new inspectors?” he added.

City councillors in favour of the change say they hope to adopt the new bylaw by the end of 2023.