Meet the masons who have spent 3 years restoring P.E.I.'s Province House

A team of heritage stonemasons has spent the last three years painstakingly restoring P.E.I.'s Province House. Now,much of the scaffolding has come down and their workis finallyvisible to the public.

Construction on the $91.8-million project began in early 2015, and the building's exterior has been obscured by scaffolding and white plastic sheets since 2018. The project is expected to be finished in 2023 which is also the 150th anniversary of P.E.I.'s entry into Confederation in 1873 but its completion datehas already been delayed several times over the years.

Justin Guignion, a mason who worked on the project, says it'sbittersweet for the team to see the scaffolding come down.

"I think we all joke about dragging our grandkids by these buildings and pointing at all the stones that we replaced and the parts of the building that we were involved in," he said.

"It's a big change. I'd almost say it's sadder than it is gratifying, but I'm sure that that changes over the length of time and as we get to look at it down the road."

Guignion has spent the past three and a half years on the Province House restoration, laying his hands on almost every piece of the project from tackling interior rubble work to putting the finishing touches on the building's exterior.

For Province House stonemasons, every block is a piece of art

2 years ago

Duration 3:02

'When you see the scope of exactly how much work is done here, it gives you a lot of appreciation for the people who built it originally,' says mason Justin Guignion.

A new appreciation

Guignon grew up in the Morell area, and says working on such an iconic P.E.I. landmark has been incredibly rewarding.

"Most kids that grew up in P.E.I., they've done tours through this building so you gain an appreciation for how much this building means to the Island and how much it means to the country," he said.

"When you see the scope of exactly how much work is done here, it gives you a lot of appreciation for the people who built it originally."

The work itself is gratifying, too. Heritage masonry is just as much a craft,an art, as it is a trade. From cleaning and assessing the existing stone, to repairing anything that can be salvaged andcrafting replacement pieces by hand Guignon describes it as a puzzle.

"These old buildings are a constant problem-solving exercise, so you're always evaluating and changing techniques, so the way we would have started here isn't necessarily the exact way that we would have finished," he said.

"And that's through an accumulation of multiple different workers putting their heads together and finding the best methods for building practices for certain areas."

An eye for detail

The Province House structure has shifted since it was built more than a century ago, he said, and almost nothing is in alignment.

"There's a lot of eye for detail as far as straight lines are concerned, and seeing things that may or may not be perfect, and figuring out how to split them into where they'll never be perfect, but getting them to that point where they look sweet to the eye," said Guignion.

It's a great pleasure to be able to see something with such historical significance that wonderful, great, talented people were able to help fix and restore.Eliot Gervais

Crafting a replacement that fits perfectly on the first try doesn't happen often, but when it does?

"It feels fantastic," Guignon said.

"Once you get used to it, you make a lot less mistakes. But you're always splitting hairs because nothing on these old buildings is perfect ....When you have a stone go in first shot and it hits exactly where it needs to be, you count your blessings, you're super happy, and you move on to the next one."

'It's a beautiful stone'

Eliot Gervais, a fellow stonemason and the site supervisor, moved to P.E.I. from Ontario in 2019 to join the project. He estimates as much as 80 per centof the building's stones have now been fixed or replaced.

"[It's] a massive undertaking of a restoration, so there's quite a bit to this building, including rebuilding facades in their entirety and general cleaning of the building itself, so the building looks quite a bit different than it did when we got here," he said.

"It's a great pleasure to be able to see something with such historical significance that wonderful, great, talented people were able to help fix and restore."

He says it's been a fascinating restoration to work on, and he's particularly enjoyed the challenge of working with Island stone.

"It's a tough stone to work with. It's a very soft stone, but it's also very abrasive, so it doesn't always agree with you. But it's a beautiful stone and a beautiful building."

A love for the craft

Like Guignion, Gervais has mixed feelings about his piece of the project coming to an end, calling it "the end of an era." It helps to knowhis work will be on display for future generations.

"That's everything, right?" he said.

"I think that's why we all stay in restoration, specifically. It's such a great pleasure to know you had a part in restoring something so beautiful and be able to look at it forever."

As for Guignion, even though he'll be packing up and moving on to the next project, he plans to come back to admire his work as often as he can.

"Oh all the time," he said.

"I do that all the time, with every building I've worked on since I was 18 years old. I think a big part of doing this type of work as a mason is having that love for the work itself. It becomes evident in the end product."