2024-01-16 05:00:00
Hit hard by the new regulations from the City of Quebec which will ban ambient fireplaces, the merchants who sell these devices are taking time to adapt and are convinced of being able to develop non-polluting stoves in the coming years. But the Marchand administration remains on its positions.
• Read also: Imminent ban on new fireplaces in Quebec
“There are people who are ready to submit to it and people who completely disagree with the regulations,” notes Pierre Poulin, general manager of Foyers Don-Bar, a company established in Quebec for 43 years and which manufactures and sells exclusively ambient fireplaces.
To preserve air quality, the City of Quebec announced before the holidays that their installation would be prohibited in the territory from January 1, 2024 and that their use would be prohibited in 2030.
Pierre Poulin, for his part, learned the news through “social media” at the time of the announcement. He deplores that unlike the last overhaul of the regulations, carried out under the previous administration and which spared indoor fireplaces, the industry was not consulted.
Two or three years to adapt
“We are not against regulation,” he insists, adding that his company wants to do its part in the climate transition. But it takes time to adapt, he says, and he asks to meet the elected officials of Quebec to emphasize to them the need to grant a delay of two or three years on the installation ban, to have the time to improve products.
A request supported by the Association of Supplementary Heating Professionals. Its general director, Marie-Claude Bouchard, recalls that several manufacturers offer models that are much less polluting than before.
In November, the vice-president of the executive committee of the City of Quebec and responsible for the file, Marie-Josée Asselin, indicated that there is no source of low-polluting environments. Mr. Poulin maintains that on the contrary, certain models come very close to the norm. “There are alternatives,” he tells his customers, to whom he advises to wait.
Foyers Don-Bar is currently evaluating “the financial impacts that it will represent” of making mechanical modifications to the fireplaces so that future models emit fewer particles, but Mr. Poulin remains convinced that it is feasible.
No reprieve, Marchand slice
At Mayor Bruno Marchand’s office, press secretary Thomas Gaudreault indicates that the City is ready to meet merchants who wish to do so. But there are no plans to grant a reprieve, due to the urgency to act. “We understand the situation in which some businesses are placed, but our role is also to think more generally about the health of our city. […] The ban will be in force from 2030, allowing both citizens and traders to adapt their products.”
Photo Stevens LeBlanc
Time to ban homes in the city
For his part, the president of the Quebec Association for the Fight against Atmospheric Pollution, André Bélisle, believes that the climate crisis is forcing us to completely review our ways of doing things. For him, gas and wood fireplaces of all kinds no longer have their place in the city.
“With the warming of the atmosphere, even if we still have winters, there is always more humidity, more cloud cover. This keeps pollution at low altitude,” he explains.
He welcomes the regulations of the City of Quebec. Mr. Belisle points out that other cities have already stepped up and have much more restrictive regulations.
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