Published March 18, 2024

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Town of Brome Lake intends to call a public meeting on May 15 to address potential solutions to the housing shortage, director general Gilbert Arel told the BCN.

The information session, held in the evening at the Lac-Brome Community Centre, will address “the town’s housing strategy, housing issues and the long-term vision.” He emphasized that the meeting was intended more as a presentation about affordable housing than as a public consultation.

“Everywhere in Quebec we’re talking about affordable housing, and it’s a concept that is still not well understood,” said Arel, who defined affordable housing as “housing where the increases in cost don’t fluctuate with real estate speculation.”

He said affordable rental apartments “are what we’re missing in Brome Lake,” especially for seniors.

“We have an aging population and people want to stay in their town, but there’s nowhere for them to live after they sell their house – they have no choice but to go to Cowansville, Waterloo or Granby,” he said.  “We’re going to work on the next urban plan [over the next year] and the next step is to develop a housing strategy that will focus on our priority clienteles – seniors and young families.” 

Ongoing projects

In terms of ongoing affordable housing projects, Arel mentioned the conversion of the former Excelsoins seniors’ residence into apartments. “[The building at] 399 chemin de Knowlton has 30 rooms with a community kitchen, and it is affordable,” he said. “There are a few out-of-town workers who live there.” The other former Excelsoins building, at 401 chemin de Knowlton, has sat empty since the residence closed nearly two years ago. Arel said he expects the owners of the residence to submit a specific project permit, known by its French acronym PPCMOI, to the town’s urban planning consultative committee; the permit would allow them to renovate the building and create 40 apartments. “I don’t see how that’s going to be a problem – they [Excelsoins] had a long-term plan to convert the building into apartments.”

Another project, Les Jardins de Lac-Brome, intended to open in July 2024, has met with delays due to a disagreement between city officials and the project promoter, Benoit Laliberté, over construction permits, according to both parties. Laliberté “was supposed to build three buildings of eight units each, and he built one building with more than eight units,” Arel said. “When you receive a permit but you don’t follow it, that raises a lot of issues.” Laliberté initially agreed to an interview with the BCN but was unavailable to comment in detail at the appointed time.

Scroll to Top