Context

Since the February 6, 2026 announcement by the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) that it would not accept the conclusions of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ Infra) report due to the high costs involved, the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital has been in a critical situation.

For several years, the interuniversity city project has been hailed as a promising vision, with the goal of revitalizing the six abandoned buildings not included in McGill University’s New Vic initiative. With an estimated cost of $845 million, 80% of which would be earmarked for heritage buildings, this project has yet to secure a developer willing to shoulder the majority of the financial burden. Given the current budget freeze in the provincial sphere, any structural changes are currently on hold. SQI recognizes the urgent need for action, as the buildings have been in a state of disrepair for an extended period. As a result, they are now exploring alternative options, such as a call for proposals in collaboration with a private partner or temporarily suspending the project.

Reminder of the Les Amis de la montagne positions on the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital

For more than 20 years, Les Amis de la montagne have shown great concern for the preservation of this site, of inestimable emblematic and identity value for Montréal and Quebec and located on the Mount Royal heritage site (MRHS). In the current context, Les Amis agrees with the SQI on the urgency of acting, but they wish to reiterate their positions, expressed in their brief submitted to the Office de consultation publique (OCPM) in 2021 on the Plan directeur d’aménagement. These positions still offer key principles today, according to Les Amis.

1. The preservation of the heritage character of this site and its buildings in the context of the MRSH which was declared by the Quebec government. This is fundamental and falls under the responsibility of the state. 

2. Maintaining a vocation with collective value focusing on their public and community character. This principle was retained in the SQI Plan and in the implementing regulations, excluding residential and hotel uses. Any new vocation must be part of the MRSH protection and development plan, as well as its relationship with Mount Royal Park.
3. Maintaining public access to the site, according to a global vision of accessibility to the MRSH and in connection with Mount Royal Park, emphasizing active and shared mobility, including the reduction of parking spaces.
4. Maintaining public ownership of land, to avoid the fragmentation of this whole and the splitting of its governance. Maintaining the entire site of the former hospital should enable coherent and sustainable overall management while respecting its environment. To avoid problems linked to splitting, there are recognized land tools (long leases, surface ownership, social utility trust) or to be explored (transfer of development rights), which make it possible to preserve ownership of the land in the public domain, while granting the occupant all the necessary rights to carry out their project.
5. Dedicated responsibility and governance, which means that the requalification of the site also requires a dedicated governance framework, bringing together the government of Quebec, the City of Montréal and civil society, to ensure lasting protection of the natural, historical and cultural characteristics of the site.

Expectations

The current situation, as difficult as it is on the financial and political levels, cannot justify either the prolonged shelving of a heritage that is actively deteriorating, nor a call for projects whose conditions would compromise the principles of public ownership and collective vocation.

Les Amis de la montagne considers that the interuniversity city project remains, to date, the vision most consistent with the fundamental values ​​of the site: collective vocation, public influence, anchoring in the MRHS, and complementarity with Mount Royal Park.

More broadly, Les Amis recalls that the preservation and requalification of this collective good require a clear and lasting commitment from the Quebec state. The responsibility of the Quebec government to invest in the preservation of this collective good remains awaited.

Pending a viable overall project, Les Amis recommends phasing out work to accelerate sectoral or building-based requalification and to deploy as soon as possible transitional occupation mechanisms compatible with the community and collective vocation of the places.