Mount Royal residents fight to save Quebec's largest curling club from potential demolition

Supporters of the Town of Mount Royal Curling Club are rallying behind an online petition to preserve the club's building, as the town council considers repurposing the site for a new sports complex.

Since the club's board of directors launched the petition on April 15, it has collected over 1,500 signatures.

Sylvie Gravel, 63, a TMR resident who has been a member of the curling club for a decade, says the town shouldn't build the new facility at the expense of curling.

"From a historical perspective, it would be extremely sad to destroy this building," she said.

Founded in 1952, the Town of Mount-Royal Curling Club has organized several major competitions, including the provincial Mixed Championship, the Canadian Gay Curling Championship and the Canadian Mixed Championship.

With six rinks, it is the largest curling club in Quebec and one of eight curling clubs available to players in Montreal and the surrounding area.

According to a news release from the club's board of directors, in 2019 the Quebec government and the previous Town of Mount Royal (TMR) administration invested more than $700,000 in the club to install a new refrigeration system, which has a typical lifespan of 25 years.

Destroying the building three years later, Gravel said, may make getting "grants for other sports facilities that you're trying to build" more difficult and would be a waste of taxpayer money.

For Gravel, the sport — often referred to as "chess on ice" — also serves as an important social activity for elderly players.

"I know that I'm not in top shape, …. but I saw in [curling] something I could do for a long time," she said. "Curling is more than just a physical activity. It's a cognitive activity."

The board has tried setting up