Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
On July 13, Quebec Lighthouse Day, Lucie Bergeron was hoping to welcome hundreds of tourists to the Cap-des-Rosiers Lighthouse to climb the 122 steps up the lighthouse tower and admire the giant electric lantern and the breathtaking views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Instead, she and about 100 other Gaspesians showed up at the lighthouse with picket signs. Perhaps fittingly, it was a damp, foggy day. The historic site, Canada’s tallest lighthouse (at 34.1 metres tall) and one of its oldest, had been hastily surrounded with security fencing the day before; Fisheries and Oceans Canada (FOC), which oversees the lighthouse, had closed it for security reasons.
The lighthouse has stood sentry to nearly 150 years of Canadian maritime history. It was completed in 1858, 10 years after the brig Carricks ran aground off Cap-des-Rosiers; at least 120 people, mostly desperate refugees fleeing the Great Famine in Ireland, drowned in the freezing water, and a memorial visible from the lighthouse commemorates their lives. After the tragedy, the British colonial administration funded the construction of the lighthouse, built from grey sandstone and brick later replaced with gleam- ing white marble. “It’s older than Canada,” commented Bergeron, the president of the volunteer-run Société historique maritime de Cap-des- Rosiers (SHMCR), which oversees the historic site. Twelve lighthouse keepers, usually political appointees, lived and worked on the site from 1858 to 1981; lighthouse keeper Joseph Ferguson entered local legend in 1942 after spotting a German U-Boat from the top of the tower. Now automated, its light can still be seen for miles, its distinctive blinking pattern supplementing modern GPS systems to help sea captains find their way.
The lighthouse has been classified as a national historic site since 1973. Starting in the 1980s, descendants of the lighthouse keepers gave informal tours; later, that duty was taken over by the Cap-des- Rosiers chamber of commerce and the Musée de la Gaspésie before falling to the SHMCR.
“We make minor repairs, but we’re a small organization, and major repairs are done by FOC,” Bergeron said. “There have been no major repairs since 1994. There’s water coming in, the cupola needs to be repainted, and the steps are wooden and wood rots. We can’t do everything.” Bergeron said that in 2017, the SHMCR was told complete repairs would cost $6.5 million. Six years of wear and tear, two prolonged closures (during the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently for safety) and rising construction costs have done nothing to decrease that number. “The more we wait, the more it will deteriorate,” said Bergeron. “Why should we let a jewel like this rot?”
Bergeron said the closure was announced “kind of cavalierly” on July 11 and a series of inspections were conducted by DPO personnel. Gaspé MP Diane LeBouthiller, appointed Fisheries and Oceans minister in this summer’s Cabinet shuffle, has assured Gaspesians that the closure is “temporary” although no reopening date has been announced. Calls for tenders were launched in late September for medium-term repairs aimed at filling cracks in the structure and replacing faulty wooden steps, according to Bergeron. “It’s a good start, because before, we had nothing,” she said.
“We’ve called for serious investment in the lighthouse, but so far, all we’ve had are cosmetic investments to secure it, and it’s stopped there,” Gaspé Mayor Daniel Côté told the QCT.
Since the QCT spoke to Côté this fall, FOC has launched several calls for tenders and a Quebec City-based company has been mandated to secure the windows and seal cracks in the centuries-old building. That work is expected to finish before the end of the year.
The long-term future of the lighthouse is still up in the air. Bergeron and Côté believe incorporating the lighthouse into Forillon National Park is one potential solution – the park’s north entrance is less than 300 metres from the site. However, Parks Canada “doesn’t have the intention” to acquire the site, spokesperson Anne-Marie Laliberté said.
“Parks Canada has as part of its mission to maintain heritage buildings, while FOC doesn’t,” Côté argued. “There’s an argument between the two ministries. I even told [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau about it when he visited in 2017. I said, your father designated this a historic site and you have the chance to save it. He looked me in the eye with that charisma of his and said he’d talk to Diane [LeBouthillier] about it.”
LeBouthillier, for her part, left Côté and Bergeron with the impression that the lighthouse “wasn’t a priority” until recently, something that Bergeron found “extremely painful.
“It’s an extraordinary tower, and we want the federal government to free up funds to repair it,” Bergeron said. “Now we’re going in the right direction.”