September 12, 2016 – The Garantie de construction résidentielle (GCR) (residential building guarantee) officially inaugurated its Trois-Rivères offices this Monday, September 12. The new facilities took shape in a city where the unprecedented pyrrhotite scandal raged a few years ago, which affected hundreds of homes and condos.
The Trois-Rivières office space was on the drawing-board for some time. Its implementation followed the one in Montréal when the GCR came into force on January 1, 2015. The GCR now represents the unique Guarantee Plan for new Residential Buildings. The GCR has replaced the three former plans named the Garantie des maisons neuves (GMN) (New Home Guarantee Plan) of the APCHQ, Abritat and Qualité habitation, which have all been placed under provisional administration.
The Trois-Rivières site constitutes a symbolic choice in this dossier, as the Mauricie suffered a major crisis in the field of residential construction. The worst, in fact, since the inception in 1999 of the Garantie des maisons neuves (GMN) (New Home Guarantee Plan) acknowledges the GCR. For its CEO, Daniel Laplante, “The scale of this unfortunate chapter is beyond comprehension, to the extent that we lack words to describe it”.
It is not a mere coincidence that the inaugural ceremonies take place in September. They were coordinated with the adoption of the 2017 Inspection Program of the GCR and its 2016-2019 Strategic Plan. “The GCR is more than a guarantee offering compensation, repairs or the taking over of work. It is intended, first and foremost, as an efficient preventative tool. We wish to avert events such as the one experienced in Mauricie, by relying on a rigorous inspection program focused on improving the quality of residential construction in Québec”, underlines Daniel Laplante.
The GCR recalls that since its creation, it has set up a team of “experienced inspectors”, all members of a professional order, crisscrossing Québec to assess the technical soundness of residential construction. Its Trois-Rivières office has ten employees, mostly building inspectors.
Montréal, September 12, 2016
