The heavy work has begun to give Lachute a new public library in the former United Church building on rue Principale.
A figurative ground breaking ceremony for the project for the new Bibliothèque Jean-Marc Belzile Library took place on Friday, June 20, 2025.
The new facility will open early in 2027, and Lachute Mayor Bernard Bigras-Denis said it could even be ready by December, 2026.
“Today, the project is a reality,” Bigras-Denis said.
There have been plans to turn the former church into a new library space for more than a decade, but funds were often limited, and moving forward was a contentious issue politically. Bigras-Denis did acknowledge on June 20 that proceeding with the project did take a lot of political courage.
Remodelling the interior of the former church is being done by Construction Monco Inc. The amount of space for the library will nearly quadruple from its current space, located across the street beside city hall. Bigras-Denis said the new interior of the library will be modern, but also include aspects of the building’s heritage. All of the elaborate stained-glass windows are being preserved and re-installed.
The city of Lachute is promoting the new library as a place which will offer residents modern, inclusive, and inspiring spaces dedicated to reading, learning, and community life.
Currently, the cost of the new library is projected to be $15,950,000.
The Government of Canada is providing $5.6 million for the library project. The funding was announced in March. On Friday, Argenteuil-La Petite-Nation Member of Parliament Stéphane Lauzon said the new facility will be a modern, central place for the lifestyle of the community.
In December 2024, the Québec government announced it was providing more than $3.3 million for the library project in Lachute. Argenteuil Member of the National Assembly Agnès Grondin said on Friday that the beginning of construction is an important step in the establishment of the new space.
A dedicated webpage for the project is currently online. It will be updated regularly during construction and feature videos, photos, and information to explain what is happening behind the construction site fences. The address for the website is: lachute.ca/nouvelle-biblio.
