Despite hopes of saving the Francophone community of Sturgeon Fall’s 1914 granite building, repair costs to address a number of structural concerns (as deemed the building unsafe) and extremely high operation and maintenance costs proved to be too much for the parish. The 2015 demolition of this church was described as “heartbreaking” by the parish council chairman.

Highly motivated to rebuild their community pillar, the parish building committee immediately retained LEA to provide services at all levels for this project. LEA’s planning exercises allowed for the much needed revenue-generating sale of existing land while careful planning work rendered a cost-effective floor plan capable of accommodating up to 300 persons and the implementation of cost effective and energy efficient building assemblies and mechanical systems. Attention was paid to every detail through the selection of timeless and durable finishes and the reuse of salvaged furnishings and memorabilia for the original church, including pews, altar, baptismal font, holy water urn, Stations of the Cross and cross of the resurrected Christ. The efforts of LEA and the project team culminated in the opening of the new Église Sacré-Coeur in 2019.