Developer loses court battle to remove heritage status on WW1 fort in Quebec

MONTREAL — The Quebec Superior Court has ruled against a real estate development company that wanted the heritage status removed from First World War fortifications overlooking the St. Lawrence River east of Quebec City.

In a ruling on Monday, Justice Denis Jacques said the interests of the public must be weighed against private interests on matters of conservation and heritage classification.

“In this case, the private interest of real estate developers has given way to the interest of the general population in preserving these vestiges of the First World War, as suggested by the (Culture Department’s) experts,” Jacques wrote in his decision.

The court ruling says the heritage site is located on two parcels of land, one owned by the municipality of Beaumont and the other by a real estate company called Gestion Breton Martineau. The ruins include a former munitions shelter, located on the municipality’s land, and two casemates — a type of armoured enclosure for heavy guns — one of which is on public land and the other on the property of the plaintiffs. Both casemates were originally part of the fort, which was built in 1914, the year the world war erupted in Europe.

“The military abandoned the fort in 1917 as Germany and its allies no longer posed a sufficient threat to navigation on the St. Lawrence River,” says a description of the heritage site on the Quebec Culture Department’s website.

“Fort de Beaumont is thus one of the rare coastal defence installations associated with the First World War that is located on Quebec land.”

In 2009 and 2012, Gestion Breton Martineau acquired the land on which part of the remains of the fort are located, with the goal of building homes. Jacques’s decision says the Culture Department became interested in the heritage value of the site around 2012, and started to take steps to have it officially designated.

In 2022, the company filed a $2.09-million lawsuit against the municipality of Beaumont and the Culture Department, accusing them of using the heritage classification as a form of “disguised expropriation,” Réjean Roy, the lawyer representing the owners of the real estate company, said Thursday. The lawsuit claims the actions of the governments caused damages to the company by preventing it from building on the land.

Despite the lawsuit, the Culture Department granted the fort heritage status in 2023, which was maintained by Monday’s court decision.

Roy said his clients are disappointed with the ruling and may consider appealing before proceeding with their damages claim, which is being treated separately.

“It’s a fiction … to consider it a fort. It’s not anymore,” Roy said in an interview, describing the casemate on his client’s property as nothing more than “deteriorated cement.”

Roy said that keeping the heritage designation means the company is unable to build nine homes, causing both economic harm to the plaintiffs and the municipality.

Neither the Culture Department nor the municipality of Beaumont were immediately available for comment.

The Vimy Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving Canada’s legacy during the First World War, has called the fort an important piece of Canadian military history. “We are pleased that the designation of the Fort de Beaumont as a heritage site has been upheld,” the foundation said in an emailed statement Thursday.

“This site represents an important and rare piece of First World War military history in Quebec and underscores the need to preserve our shared past for future generations.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 9, 2025.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press