By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
A residential addiction treatment centre for women has requested a permit to open a facility in the Villa Châteauneuf, a former convent turned religious retreat centre at the heart of a dispute between the municipality of Sutton and the nonprofit board of directors responsible for its maintenance.
The Villa Châteauneuf is a former convent and school that was built in 1911 on a 25-acre plot donated by philanthropist and politician Eugene Dyer. In 1971, it was transferred to the Foyers de la Charité, a network of religious retreat centres-slash-utopian communities based in France and affiliated with the Catholic Church. In June 2023, amid declining religious participation and the impact of COVID restrictions, the papal delegate of the Foyers de la Charité decreed the closure of the entire network; the last six permanent residents of the Sutton centre moved out last September. Since then, the complex of eight buildings has sat empty, overseen by a nonprofit board of directors. The board of directors intends to donate it to a charity; the municipality wants to use its right of pre-emption to take the complex over and move local services there, replacing the aging Centre John-Sleeth.
Both Sutton mayor Robert Benoit and board vice-president Victor Marchand said they believed their plan was in accordance with Eugene Dyer’s wishes for the property. The BCN contacted Dyer’s great-granddaughter, Sutton resident Ann Dyer, to see if it was possible to consult written records of the donation, but the documents weren’t available. Dyer has previously supported the municipality’s plans for the Villa Châteauneuf.
Caught in the middle of the dispute is La Passerelle, the province’s only long-term residential alcohol and drug rehab centre exclusively for women. La Passerelle currently has a 24-bed facility in Saint-Simon de Bagot, in Montérégie, and a long waiting list; director general Amélie Lemieux said acquiring the Villa Châteauneuf would allow it to add a second facility with 40 more beds in private rooms and invest in bilingual services. Lemieux said she was aware of the conflict between the town and the board, but believed it was “not our problem.”
Lemieux said the planned La Passerelle centre in Sutton, like the one in Saint-Simon de Bagot, would be a long-term rehabilitation centre for women in recovery from addiction to alcohol or other drugs – not a “deintoxication centre” for those going through acute withdrawal. Some patients apply for places at the centre on their own initiative; others are assigned there by a court after being charged with a crime linked to their addiction. They would not be allowed to leave the property on their own. “When we came to Saint-Simon, there were people who didn’t want the centre in their backyard, but we ended up building good relationships in the community,” she added.
La Passerelle would need approval from the municipality and the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS to open a treatment centre. Benoit confirmed that the centre had requested a permit from the city, but said he had not spoken with anyone from La Passerelle, and had not had any communication from the Villa Châteauneuf board in months.
Benoit said the town has the right of first refusal for any proposal to do with the property – a right he intends to use. “Our priority is to use it for a community centre, and these people [the Villa Châteauneuf board] are depriving the citizens of Sutton of a community centre which would serve our needs.”