Quebec town evacuates two municipal buildings over structural problems, plans to demolish one

City staff arrived around noon on Monday and gave the tenants about an hour to leave, CBC News reported. The entrances were padlocked from 1 p.m. until further notice, according to Le Soleil de Châteauguay. Four groups lost their space: community radio station CHAI 101.9 FM, community broadcaster Télévision du Sud-Ouest, the group Mouvement action découverte and Centre 55 Plus, a club for English-speaking seniors with more than 750 members.

City communications chief Alain Legault told Le Soleil the city-owned property had been monitored for several years. Inspections in 2023 and 2024 and a follow-up visit in October led to an engineers' report that found structural defects putting occupants at risk. The city says the 1947 building at 25 boulevard Saint-Francis, which housed the radio and TV stations, has to come down, though the decision still goes to city council. More testing is planned at 27 Saint-Francis. Engineers will decide whether the seniors' centre must also be demolished, CBC reported.

Mayor Éric Allard told CBC the city wants to check whether each of its buildings is still viable, and that the review could lead to merged activities, reassigned space, or the sale or demolition of buildings. The city says it is meeting the displaced groups about temporary space, and Centre 55 Plus is looking for a place to keep its programs going. Neither news report describes the specific defects the engineers found.