The decaying buildings located on the Island of Corossol, on the North Shore, will disappear in the coming weeks, and only the lighthouse will be saved from the demolition work, which will be carried out in 2020.
In a few weeks, there was no trace of the guardian’s house and the mist screamer’s abode on Corossol Island. The site’s owner, Canada’s Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations, has judged them to be dilapidated and in danger of collapsing.
They will be demolished along with four other buildings on the island deemed at risk, at a cost of more than $1 million in 2020 and 2021.
“There is no meaning. All the money is spent. And there is no money to hide. It’s beyond me.” Louis Galienne, great-grandson and son of a lighthouse keeper on Corossol Island, was saddened by the lack of value and attention given to these remains.
“I lived there from the age of 17 days until I was 5.” He is saddened to see the last vestiges of the not-so-distant past disappear, year after year.
“The buildings were cut into pieces and put in bags that were brought by helicopter. That’s why the heavy bill,” he said.
“Personally, I have the impression that our family history collapsed in bags under a helicopter and no one reacted to preserve any of it.”
The Ministry of Crown-Indigenous Relations does not currently plan to destroy the lighthouse, but it is not subject to any maintenance program, so if it threatens to collapse, it risks being subjected to the same fate as other buildings on the island. , which disappeared in 2020 and 2021.
“We have a story behind that,” rebuked Louis Galienne. Not just me and my family, but the region as well. The lighthouse has been there for months. What is there? What does Canadian Heritage do with that?” he asked.
After a review, no building on the island received a heritage designation. However, in order to preserve at least some signs of the presence of the lighthouse keepers, the federal government had a three-dimensional photographic survey of the buildings made before they were demolished.
