Renovating Sherbrooke’s historic armouries

Sherbrooke – Élisabeth Brière, MP for Sherbrooke, and Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of National Revenue and Member of Parliament for Compton—Stanstead, announced on behalf of Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, that the Government of Canada has reached a major milestone in its work to preserve and modernize Canadian Armed Forces infrastructure in Sherbrooke, Quebec – as we committed to do in December 2022.

Madame Brière announced that the Government of Canada has awarded a modified design build contract to Pomerleau Inc. of Montreal for infrastructure work on the Colonel-Gaëtan-Côté (Belvédère Street) and William Street armouries in Sherbrooke. Pomerleau Inc. will conduct studies, design, construction, and renovation work on the Belvédère and William Street armouries.

This procurement approach allows the project’s studies, design, construction, and renovation work to be carried out in phases under a single contract as opposed to traditional methods which contract separately for design and construction. This phased contracting process will result in a faster and less expensive project – and ensures the best value for taxpayers.

The process will proceed as follows:

• Now that the contract has been awarded, the contractor will begin work on the first phase of the project – developing an early conceptual design, further understanding the exact conditions of the buildings, and developing construction estimates. This first phase of the contract, worth $3.36M, is expected to be completed by late 2025.
• Subsequently, the contractor will negotiate a price with DND and Defence Construction Canada (DCC) for the project.
• Following departmental project approval, DCC will authorize the contractor to begin the next phases of the project (design, then construction).
• Milestones for construction and renovation work will be announced as the project progresses.
• Following approval of the design, construction and renovation work is expected to begin in 2027.

This process will ultimately result in the restoration of Sherbrooke’s William Street Armoury and renovation of the Colonel-Gaëtan-Côté Armoury (Belvédère Street Armoury) – ensuring that we protect Sherbrooke’s history and heritage, and provide Canada’s Reserve Forces with the work and training locations that they require.

Throughout this process, we are committed to listening to feedback from the local community and taking community interests into consideration. These armouries are crucially important to the community, and we are committed to ensuring the City of Sherbrooke and the community are well informed as we develop our plans and timelines.

Sherbrooke’s reserve units are dynamic and continue to recruit new members. We have also assessed that our Reservists’ operational needs have outgrown the current footprint of the Bélvédère and William Street armouries. A third location will be explored to meet all the remaining training and operational requirements that cannot be accommodated within the renovated and restored armouries. It will also bring together two other units: the Section d’habillement et entretien des Services techniques that were previously working out of a leased facility on Brodeur Street in Sherbrooke, and the new Détachement Service de soutien au combat du 35e Bataillon des services. DND is currently assessing the Sherbrooke real estate market for properties that could accommodate a third location in Sherbrooke to support our Reservists’ needs. Options could include purchasing, building, or leasing a facility.

Today’s announcement will enable reserve forces to continue to call Sherbrooke’s armouries home well into the future. Through these efforts we are ensuring that Reserve Force units in Sherbrooke have modern facilities that meet their long-term infrastructure needs, while preserving the valuable history and heritage of these units.