Weeping dry rot feeds on wood. She ends up drying it out and making it unable to support a house. (File photo)
The Municipality of Esprit-Saint is asking for help from Quebec to demolish a building infested with dry rot located in the center of the village.
The owners of the neighboring houses have asked the Municipality to act, since the building has been abandoned by its owner. They fear that dry rot – a fungus that attacks the wooden structures of buildings – is spreading to their homes.
However, the Municipality does not have access government assistance for the demolition, since it is reserved for owners.
Often, when house owners leave the house abandoned, this house can remain 10, 15 years with weeping dry rot in a municipality, it could even contaminate other houses around, explains the mayor of ;Holy Spirit, Langis Proulx.
Weeping dry rot can actually spread by air, through the dispersal of spores. The larger the source of contamination, the more spores there will be, explains the general manager of Mérule pleureuse Québec, Marie-Hélène Cauchon.
She affirms that the owner of the x27;infested building in Esprit-Saint requested assistance from Quebec under the Residential Intervention Program – Dry rot. However, the criteria for this program were tightened in July 2021, she laments, which means that fewer and fewer people have access to it.
A motion to make the program less restrictive and allow municipalities to benefit from it was tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday by the Liberal Critic for Municipal Affairs and Public Health. x27;House, Virginie Dufour.
The motion was however rejected.
The Executive Director of Mérule pleureuse Québec, Marie-Hélène Cauchon (left), and the Official Opposition Critic for Municipal Affairs and Housing, Virginie Dufour (centre) during representations made at the National Assembly, Thursday.
The Municipality of Esprit-Saint had itself made representations to the Minister responsible for Bas-Saint-Laurent, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, and to that of the x27;House, France-Élaine Duranceau.
I asked for special permission so that the municipalities could apply for this program, says Mayor Proulx, who regrets that his request was not retained in the new version of the program.
“If the municipality acquires this house and it has no program, it will be our citizens who will have to pay that bill. »
— Langis Proulx, Mayor of Esprit-Saint
He explains that he cannot impose this burden on the 180 taxpayers of his municipality, especially since the cost of demolishing the infested building was estimated at $65,000 three years ago.
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For me, when I increase the tax bill by 1%, that gives me $2900, almost $3000. Which means that I would have to increase my taxes by 22% for the next year, he argues.
Even if the CAQ refused the motion proposed by the PLQ to make assistance available to municipalities, the minister responsible for Bas-Saint-Laurent, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, says she is in contact with the elected officials of Esprit-Saint in order to deal with this problem.
The objective is to find solutions so that the municipality of Esprit-Saint can acquire the building and carry out the necessary work. are necessary, she said, without specifying what types of solutions could be considered.
With the collaboration of Patrick Bergeron and Sophie Martin
