Inspectors flagged Montreal building before fire that shut down Jacques-Cartier Bridge
CBC
The owner of the vacant building that caught fire earlier this week in Montreal, forcing the closure of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, was handed two infraction notices related to its upkeep in recent years.
Hugo Bourgoin, a city spokesperson, said the building at 1600 De Lorimier was the subject of 12 inspections by the Ville-Marie borough since 2023, most recently on Dec. 22, 2025.
The two warnings “were served to remind the owner of their obligations regarding vacant buildings," Bourgoin said in an email.
Montreal police are trying to determine the cause of the fire, which broke out late Tuesday. The building has since been demolished, and the bridge reopened to traffic in both directions.
Montreal police said investigators would examine security footage of the area. Police could not confirm whether there had been squatters in the building, but a sniffer dog was brought to the site on Thursday.
The historic property at the foot of the bridge was originally home to a soap factory. It was slated to be redeveloped into housing by the owners, the Montreal-based real estate company Bertone.
The federal government announced in March it was investing $108 million in the 304-unit project through its Apartment Construction Loan Program.
The company didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday regarding the infraction notices.
On Wednesday, Briana Bertone, the company’s director of legal affairs and corporate strategy, said the project had been put on hold while the situation is being assessed.
“As the investigation is ongoing and several elements remain unknown, we do not have any additional information to share at this time,” Bertone said, adding that the company is co-operating with authorities.
Vacant buildings in Montreal have been the site of a number of fires in Montreal in recent years. Data obtained by CBC News by access-to-information request showed that 11 of the 80 serious fires (between three- and five-alarm) in greater Montreal, between 2020 and the end of 2023, were in vacant buildings.
Under former mayor Valérie Plante, the city passed a bylaw in 2023 that made registering vacant buildings mandatory for property owners. However, the bylaw, which imposes fines on owners that do not upkeep their buildings, is still not in force.
The rules for vacant buildings went into effect Jan. 1, 2026, but a spokesperson said the city is giving property owners a grace period before imposing fines for failing to comply.
Among the requirements are:
All school purpose vehicles outside of London, Ont. are cancelled Wednesday morning due to a thick blanket of fog causing poor visibility on the roads.
Gas prices in the Greater Toronto Area jumped six cents on Wednesday, with experts warning more increases are expected in the days ahead due to the U.S. and Israel-Iran war.
Albertans listening to the U.S. president’s state of the union address last week may have experienced a sense of deja vu when it came to Donald Trump’s plans for AI data centres: “We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs.”
A prominent labour organization in Newfoundland and Labrador that was pushing hard for topsides construction contracts on the Bay du Nord production vessel says a plan to invest in a massive floating dry dock will more than offset the loss of any work on the topsides.
Some Iranians in Sudbury, Ont., say they are ecstatic about recent attacks from the United States and Israel against Iran.
A Nova Scotia family is speaking out after two masked intruders entered a Halifax-area high school and violently attacked a Grade 9 student, prompting concerns about school safety and security.
Keith Hoyt’s cows used to be the neighbourhood celebrities.
It is a bluebird morning at Mont Tremblant ski resort, with the white peaks reaching into a clear sky.
The man responsible for the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash could be deported to India within weeks, leaving behind his wife and two children, who are pleading with Canada to let him stay.
Delays and closures, including the cancellation of several families of schools, are in effect across parts of P.E.I. Wednesday morning after an overnight snowfall on the Island.
In late 2024, two B.C. men were staring at up to 20 years in prison for allegedly attempting to subvert U.S. clean air laws by smuggling millions of dollars worth of illegal car parts across the border.
A Hamilton police officer, back at work after he was investigated for sharing racist and extremist content online, is again displaying a sticker "associated with white nationalist extremism" on his vehicle, a community group says.
A class action lawsuit alleging Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program exploits the labour and Charter rights of agricultural workers can proceed, a judge decided last week.