Acclaimed artist fights QC land grab

Internationally renowned bronze artist Dave Clendining wants to save the art school he’s been building for the last three decades. But newly-drawn cadastre lines by Quebec put those plans in peril.

The province is laying claim to a corner of his land and says if he wants to continue running his Summit Studios art and nature centre, he will have to rent the space from them, buy it or leave.

“It could potentially ruin everything that took 30 years to build,” Clendining, 68, told the Low Down while in his Lac-des-Loups home.

David Clendining chopped down and milled trees on his Lac-des-Loups property to expand his home from the shack he bought in 1990. His plans to create an art and nature centre are now in jeopardy because Quebec is claiming a corner of one of his properties. Hunter Cresswell photo

In June 2018, while he was in England, a letter from the Quebec Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources naturelles (MERN) arrived at his home stating that a corner of his land along Chemin Pontbriand encroaches on Quebec territory and that he needed to contact MERN. By the time he arrived back in Canada, got the letter and contacted officials, the two-week grace period had passed and the ministry told him that he would either have to rent from them for about $400 a month, buy