Back in the late 1600s, there were two main roads leading west out of Montreal. There was the Lower Lachine Road, now known as LaSalle Boulevard throughout Verdun and LaSalle, and as Saint-Joseph Boulevard in Lachine. And there was the Upper Lachine Road, a section of which still exists today, under the same name, in Notre Dame de Grâce.
After the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701 that followed the Lachine Massacre of 1689, the Lower Lachine Road was deemed safe for westward expansion out to what is now Pointe-Claire. And out on a “clear point,” or peninsula, settlers built a windmill in 1709.
This is the windmill that graces the City of Pointe-Claire’s official flag and logo, the same one featured in several news stories last month, including The Suburban’s March 13th story, “Archdiocese commits to Pointe Claire windmill restoration.”
According to the stories, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal, owner of the windmill (and of the abandoned adjacent convent), has signed a 50-year lease with a local non-government organization, the Société pour la Sauvegarde du Patrimoine de Pointe-Claire (SSPPC, or Pointe-Claire Heritage Preservation Society). As the lawful tenant, the SSPPC plans to open the windmill to visitors this summer and launch a fundraising campaign that will, as a first step, seek private donations to help fund the windmill’s “restoration.”
Restoration? What does that mean?
Everybody in Pointe-Claire agrees that the windmill is in bad shape and needs to be “restored.” But “restore” means different things to different people. Some people and groups, like Mayor Tim Thomas and the SSPPC, whose president, Andrew Swidzinski, was Thomas’s campaign manager in 2021, want to see a complete structural and operational restoration. Others, including most councillors, support just structural repairs, at least for now, particularly as the city doesn’t own or have any control over the building that is its iconic emblem. There is no consensus on which way to go, either within council or in the public at large.
What are other municipalities doing with their old windmills? What are the trends in Quebec?
I called the Association des moulins du Québec to find out. Luc Fontaine, the treasurer, said there are 17 other old windmills in Quebec, like Pointe Claire’s, that were built during the French Regime and are still standing today. But only two, he said, have undergone full structural as well as operational restoration – and in both cases, it’s not municipal money that has been behind it. It’s been provincial ownership and/or provincial underwriting of operating and maintenance expenses that has made the operational restorations possible. One of the two, the Parc historique de la Pointe-du-Moulin, is on Île Perrot, 15 minutes by car, west of Pointe-Claire. The other, Les Moulins de l’Isle-aux-Coudres, is a joint watermill/windmill facility in the Charlevoix region.
“The trend is not toward full operational restoration,” said Fontaine.
I asked him why not.
“It’s dangerous,” he said. Sails can fly off and injure people. And inside the windmills, stairs are very steep and dangerous for children, seniors, and the disabled. “It’s not something the Régie du bâtiment du Québec encourages,” said Fontaine.
I visited the Île Perrot windmill last summer. The stairs inside are indeed very steep. And when the windmill is in full operation, nobody is allowed inside to watch the miller at work. All people can do is stand outside and watch the sails turn, and they are held far back at a safe distance.
There’s a lot of open space around the Île Perrot windmill to ensure that safe distance. Fontaine asked me what the space around the Pointe-Claire windmill was like. “It’s much tighter,” I said. Where once upon a time a tiny miller’s house was built at a safe distance from the windmill, there is now the old convent, built in 1867 and expanded in the early 20th century. The southern wing of the expanded convent now sits right up very close to the windmill. “Are there trees around the windmill?” Fontaine asked. “Yes,” I said, “mostly on the east side, although some on the west side too.” I could see what Fontaine was doing. He was looking to imagine if an operational restoration was even feasible.
I learned something else at the Île Perrot windmill. It’s very rare that people can actually get to see the windmill in action. The windmill only has a miller on-site once a week, in summer, on Sundays. And winds have to be at least 35-to-40-km/h strong on those Sundays to get the sails to turn. Last year, from May to September, there were only three Sundays when winds were that high, and only five in 2022 and six in 2023. This raises the question: Is the extra investment required to go from a simple structural restoration to a full operational restoration really worth it, financially, and from an educational and cultural point of view?
What other restoration options are there for Pointe-Claire to consider?
I see two that deserve consideration.
The Fleming Mill in LaSalle. This is the only remaining windmill in Quebec based on an “Anglo-Saxon” design, as opposed to the earlier French Regime design. The Fleming windmill is a bit taller and wider than the old French windmills. Built in 1827, Fleming Mill was structurally restored in 1930 and again in 1990. Last year, yet another structural restoration was undertaken; work should be completed later this year. The City of Montreal, which owns the windmill, is co-financing the restoration of the building shell, inside and outside, with the borough of LaSalle. In late 2023, the cost of the restoration was estimated at $2 million, once again leaving the inside of the shell empty. There are no grindstones or other mechanisms inside. There are no grindstones or other mechanisms inside.
Since 1990, LaSalle has been operating the windmill as an interpretation centre, most recently dedicated to the history of LaSalle. A borough official told me the plan is to continue to operate the windmill as some kind of interpretation centre.
The Moulin Grenier in Repentigny. The City of Repentigny bought this old, privately owned windmill in 2003 and undertook not just a restoration of the structure but also of all the internal mechanisms. Some of the internal parts are original to the windmill; others are reproductions. But Repentigny left it at that. It never puts the windmill into actual operation for a variety of financial and security reasons. Insurance and maintenance costs are consequently lower than they would otherwise be. Guided tours are given by the city in summer.
What’s been happening with the Pointe-Claire windmill since the 2021 municipal election?
Mayor Tim Thomas negotiated a tentative agreement with the archdiocese in late 2022, pledging $1 million in municipal financial support for a full operational restoration estimated to cost $2 million. But the archdiocese got cold feet about the insurance clause, and a majority of councillors had some due-diligence concerns about operating costs that were to fall to the city instead of the archdiocese.
And then in January 2024, council passed a by-law, opposed by Thomas, pledging the same $1 million – but just for a structural restoration and with no provision for any role, or say, for Swidzinski’s SSPPC. What’s more, the by-law said the city would only hand over its share of the cost of a structural restoration, to a maximum of the same $1 million, once the work was done.
The city’s commitment was intended to give the archdiocese the municipal funding the archdiocese said it needed to apply for a provincial matching grant. But the archdiocese never applied for that matching grant. Caroline Thibault, City Clerk and Director of Legal Affairs for Pointe-Claire, told the 1510 West newspaper last month that municipal payment upon completion of a project, as opposed to progressive disbursements along the way, is a common way for municipalities to proceed in Quebec. It helps ensure that city money is spent, she said. Thibault also said there was nothing stopping the archdiocese from taking out a $1-million loan based on the city’s promissory by-law.
Why the archdiocese never went forward and applied for the provincial matching grant is a mystery. It has not explained why. But there have been similar episodes in the past, under previous mayors John Belvedere, Morris Trudeau, and Bill McMurchie, where the city thought it was close to an agreement with the church about the windmill – but final church approval was always elusive.
The Suburban’s March 13th story said, “Archdiocese commits to Pointe-Claire windmill restoration.” It’s hard to see what the real commitment is, though. To me, it looks like all it has done is take a step away and put the SSPPC in the spotlight. In fact, at no time has the church agreed to put up any of its own money, for any sort of restoration at all. That has been an ongoing sore point with many Pointe-Claire citizens, given the cash and asset wealth of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec.
At last month’s March council meeting question period, Councillor Tara Stainforth lashed out at the archdiocese for its refusal to contribute financially to any restoration work, as did Pointe-Claire Village optometrist Alain Dubuc, himself a former SSPPC member.
“We need collaboration from the church,” he said. “We need that! And unless we get that, we’re not going to go anywhere!”
And yet the law is clear. Under Article 26 of the Cultural Heritage Act, owners of heritage properties are obliged to take care of these properties. And if they don’t, cities can ask the provincial government to invoke Article 195 and seek a court order forcing them to. That’s one option that I suspect will be a campaign issue this fall.
But the best way forward, I think, is to get the windmill off this acrimonious political track and put it onto a more constructive policy track.
I told Fontaine of the Association des moulins that there is no consensus in Pointe-Claire as to what kind of restoration to carry out. He said the city might want to consult with Guy Bessette, vice-president of the Association des moulins. I’d like to see the city organize some kind of public information meeting – one that would also invite the experts behind the Île Perrot, Repentigny, and LaSalle windmill restorations. We need to understand the various restoration options better and see which is the best one for Pointe-Claire, especially if any municipal financial support is to be involved.
David Johnston lives in District 1 (Cedar-Le Village). He is a retired federal public servant and former editorial page editor of the Montreal Gazette.