Lucie Goyer pays attention to fear. Or maybe it’s fear watching her. As of May 1st, she’s been adrenaline-pumping, making the round-trip trips (and expensive hotel nights) between her pied-à-terre near Montreal and her primary residence (or what’s left of it) Baie-Saint- Paul multiplies. Always more questions than answers. And each time, the same conclusion: The dream of retirement Charlevoix that she’s fondled with her husband Alain Lemieux is nothing more than a huge construction site that we don’t know when it will even begin.
His omen was also confirmed during a recent visit to the town of Baie-Saint-Paul. We explain our situation, ask our questions and get the answer: “You will retire later.” It might have been a joke, but we didn’t find it funny…” summarizes Mrs. Goyer.
One of her neighbors recently displayed the city’s redevelopment permit in his window, which of course surprised her.
“No one from the civil defense has come to our house yet and they can start the renovation work if their house is even lower than ours… What is being done so that in a year, in five years, we don’t experience the same scenario again?” ”
Or even in a few weeks…” As we were driving through town, a public safety man said that we might even be flooded again in July! What’s up with the famous dike? Do they fix it or not? “Start Lucie Goyer and Alain Lemieux, amazed.
Nowadays it’s winter that keeps Lucie Goyer awake. “As soon as summer has started, winter starts to stress me out,” summarizes the person who has to resort to a double dose of sleeping pills to get a little rest.
In the current state of affairs, it seems unrealistic for them to hope that all the necessary work to insulate their house can be carried out before the cold season begins. “We told ourselves we had no choice but to close it for the winter and shut off the water… But we were told around town that we had no right to winterize our house. how do we heat this There’s not even tow in the walls anymore! And our heating system was flooded…”
“You will fix it,” they were told, as if it were the clearest proof.
A short film? Not for you.
Despite their full-time employment, which requires them to spend some of their time in the Montreal area, they looked for a small temporary apartment (rare if not nonexistent commodity) before considering a trailer in the yard to set up to dedicate there renovations. There were even rumors that the city would give some to disaster victims. “We quickly realized that there weren’t any, at least not for us…”
Yet they do not ask for alms! The $80 a day in disaster relief could have been used to fund the famous trailer. At least we would have been there to work on the house! $80 a day for two people can’t pay for the hotel every time…”
Is a renovation worth it? In the absence of certainty that none of this will have to happen again during the next flood, she is tormented by this question, along with many others. Renovate the whole house if there is a risk of flooding again? At our age, no thanks! Unless you “bang” us on stilts! ‘ the couple begins. She is 62, he is 64.
Especially since her home has been given the flattering but tricky label of heritage.
“We fall into a different category…”
Which makes every hammer blow more difficult.
So far, they’ve received about $3,000 in government assistance. The bill from the cleaning company they did business with alone was over $11,000. We received the bill without submission, with an administration fee of 10% and a “profit” of 8%… What’s that? And you had to pay it right away, otherwise it’s 2% interest per month… When I called and said it was abuse, I was told, ‘The government will pay for this!'”. I said to them, ah , well, and when? We’ve been flooded, you’re drowning us!”
The city, in turn, gave them a generous tax break… for a week and a half. » A real holiday! The check was passed 10 days later,” she says, laughing despite everything.
Lucie Goyer is torn between sadness and anger. Anger is a powerful engine, but she awaits the day when she won’t even have the strength to be angry. “I’m going to fall…” Fortunately, a lady from the CLSC calls him from time to time with news. I begged him not to let me go! ”
Whichever way Alain Lemieux and Lucie Goyer look, they see no light at the end of the tunnel.
“I feel trapped in a mousetrap! I don’t have the money to do the work. It is not resellable. As it is a listed building, the courtyard cannot be demolished and rebuilt. Our mortgage keeps coming in. We are told that our house is our responsibility and we must not close it for the winter. We are not protected from further damage, because at the moment we do not know what will happen to the dike… And we have signed that we will not file a class action lawsuit. That was the first question on the first form we filled out…”
Although they’re still clinging to their dream of retiring at Charlevoix, Lucie Goyer and Alain Lemieux feel it’s slipping from their fingers. “There are so many uncertainties! The rules change, we don’t feel accompanied… It’s like being in the 12 works of Asterix! ”
“We need to get the A38 pass. -Asterix
“Announce a galley? No, you have been misled! -The official
(Editor’s note: this text is the fourth in the Des sinistrés series, along with many others)
also read
One victim among many others, the story of Yves and Outi Giroux
Don’t feel like petanque, the story of Benoît Liard, Claudia Guerra and Madeleine
Separation, the story of Odette Thibault and André Devisch