By Jack Wilson

Local Journalism Initiative

Accommodation Massawippi will be closing by the end of February. Owner Yingming Ning, known to locals as Ming, said he plans to close the North Hatley dépanneur by Feb. 26. The landlord, Patrick Lajoie, who also owns the Pilsen restaurant and pub, said no new dépanneur will open once the lease ends.

Ning confirmed the lease is ending following a legal dispute with Lajoie. He declined to discuss the specifics of the case for this article.

The dépanneur is currently home to North Hatley’s SAQ agency. Épicier J.L. LeBaron, the town’s grocery store, aims to take over the SAQ license. “It’s not a done deal, but we will apply for it,” said owner Elliott Sharman.

Since word got out of Accommodation Massawippi’s imminent closure, rumors have swirled on the Friends of Massawippi Lake Facebook page. A post asking for further details had amassed 116 comments by press time Jan. 30. Speculation has been especially rampant around what Lajoie might replace the dépanneur with.

Reached for comment, the Pilsen owner would only confirm that the dépanneur was indeed closing and that a new one would not open in its stead. “I don’t want to discuss this at all,” Lajoie said. “With all that’s been written, I won’t live long enough to explain myself to everyone.”

Pressed for further details, Lajoie hung up the phone.

North Hatley building inspector Matthieu Abran said the soon-to-close dépanneur is in a commercial-zoned area. Under current zoning rules, the town permits most possible uses, including residential.

“The municipality would like to retain a dépanneur, but the owner of the building still has the ability to do what he’d like, within permitted uses,” Abran said. Should the dépanneur close, he said there wasn’t much the town could do to encourage a new one.

Under proposed zoning changes, the North Hatley council will seek to prevent the ground floor of buildings in the town’s centre from including residences. That zone includes the dépanneur’s current location, Abran said. But as it stands now, residences, alongside most other uses, are allowed on either the second or ground floor of the building.