Project Recipient: Les Amis des Jardins de Métis
National Historic Site: Jardins de Métis National Historic Site
Total Project Cost: minimum of $200,000
Parks Canada’s Contribution: up to $100,000

Project Description:

The conservation project undertaken by the Amis des Jardins de Métis aims to safeguard the Estevan Villa against fire with the installation of a high pressure watermist fire suppression system. The project also includes equipping a heated room with water tanks and functional systems. The Villa, located in the heart of the Jardins de Métis, is a character-defining element of the national historic site. These interventions will help significantly reduce damage and safeguard this wooden building from the potentially devastating effects of fire. This investment will ensure that the commemorative integrity of this important national historic site is maintained for present and future generations and will support its continued use so that it remains an integral part of the community.

Jardin de Métis National Historic Site

The Jardins de Métis national historic site is an English-inspired garden created by Elsie Reford from about 1926 to 1958. The property, which covers approximately 18 hectares (45 acres) of land, is located on the banks of the St. Lawrence and Métis Rivers between the towns of Mont-Joli and Matane, near Sainte-Flavie, Quebec. The site includes one villa and six distinct garden areas and more than 500 horticultural varieties. Official recognition refers to the gardens as well as the built elements within the property boundary at the time of designation.

Jardins de Métis was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1995 because:
- the gardens, planned and developed over a thirty-year period by Elsie Reford, provide an excellent Canadian example of an English-inspired garden, with specialized gardens, winding paths, allée royale, and a variety of flower beds arranged in an informal manner; and
- the Jardins de Métis benefit from an exceptional microclimate, favourable to the growth of plants, flowers, bushes and trees, certain varieties of which are to be found nowhere else in the country.

The gardens were created by Elsie Reford from about 1926 to 1958 on the grounds of a summer home given to her by her uncle, George Stephen, founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canada's leading entrepreneur of the 19th century. Originally a fishing lodge, Mrs. Reford created the gardens from a rough landscape, taking full advantage of the site's favourable microclimate and its sublime views. The site now includes specialized gardens, winding paths, an allée royale and a variety of flower beds arranged in an informal manner.

Cost-Sharing Program

The National Historic Sites Cost-Sharing Program is a contribution program whereby up to 50% of eligible costs incurred in the conservation of a national historic site can be reimbursed. This year, the Program aimed to assist non-federal owners of national historic sites that demonstrated a real and immediate threat to the commemorative integrity of their national historic site and for which an intervention was required in the short term to maintain the physical integrity of the threatened cultural resource(s). A national historic site possesses commemorative integrity when it is healthy and whole, and when the site’s heritage values are protected, communicated and respected. The Program supports Parks Canada’s mandate of protecting and presenting places of national historic significance, and fostering the public’s understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of these places in ways that ensure their commemorative integrity for present and future generations.

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News Release associated with this Backgrounder.

Government of Canada Supports the Preservation of History and Culture at Jardins de Métis National Historic Site of Canada