Peter Black
May 29, 2024
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
Justice may be blind, but that doesn’t mean it can’t look good.
That was the feeling municipal officials expressed at the May 21 official inauguration of Quebec City’s new municipal courthouse in the Saint-Roch district at the intersection of Rue du Pont and Rue du Prince-Edouard.
“Wow” was the word Coun. Marie-Josée Asselin, the city executive committee member responsible for police and fire services, used to describe the new facility installed in a completely gutted historic building.
The structure, which also contains a neighbourhood police station, is the former F.X. Drolet factory, a company that manufactured a wide range of steel products, including many manhole covers and fire hydrants still seen throughout the city.
Asselin lauded not only the design “genius” that went into the ultra-modern conversion, but the fact the building, located near the downtown zone, underlines the city’s commitment to maintaining services in proximity to citizens.
Mayor Bruno Marchand, whose party took over City Hall well after the project was put on the drawing board of the previous administration, said he was pleased with the fact, despite a two-year delay due to pandemic complications and other factors, that the project came within about five per cent of its budget, which ended up at $29 million.
The mayor said he also was gratified that city expertise managed the entire project, as was also the case, he noted, for two other recently completed major city projects – the new police headquarters in Charlesbourg which opened earlier this month and the revamped Gabrielle-Roy Library in Saint-Roch.
When asked by the QCT how these major projects stayed on budget while that of the proposed tramway soared, the mayor said a huge infrastructure project such as a tramway, planned years in advance, is vulnerable to many factors, the pandemic being a major one.
The new courthouse is spacious, with huge, specially restored windows providing ample sunlight. It has five counters on the main floor as well as one courtroom and two interview rooms. It also has an exhibition space documenting the history of the Drolet company. In what might be a spin on the wheels of justice, the exhibit features a giant steel wheel unearthed during excavation work to decontaminate the industrial site.
On the second floor are three more courtrooms, including one with a more intimate configuration for particularly vulnerable people or sensitive situations. Those appearing in court will enter by a separate secure door leading directly to where the accused are seated.
The neighbourhood police station is in quarters separated from the courthouse. A squad of officers will provide a rapid response to incidents in the downtown area.
Pierre-Luc Lachance, executive committee member and councillor for Saint-Roch-Saint-Sauveur said, “Since its construction in 1909, the F.-X. Drolet building has been an essential component of the Saint-Roch district, This building is one of the few that still bears witness to the industrial architecture of the early 20th century in Quebec. Today, it begins a new chapter in this history.”
The new facility is scheduled to open for business on June 3; residents will still be able to use the Sainte-Foy service centre on Route de l’Eglise to pay parking tickets and the like.
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An exhibit at the new courthouse documents the history of the F.X. Drolet factory.
Photo by Peter Black
Large, specially restored windows provide ample light in the corridor of the second floor of the courthouse where three courtrooms are located.
Photo by Peter Black
One of the courthouse’s four hearing rooms has a round table configuration for mediation or other, less formal, proceedings.
Photo by Peter Black