Historic Quebec scout camp to become conservation land, recreational tourism site

MILLE-ISLES, QUEBEC — The new buyers of a more than century-old Scouts camp site north of Montreal say the property will become a mix of conservation land and a recreational tourism site.

Scouts Canada announced earlier this week that it has sold Tamaracouta Scout Reserve to entrepreneur Eric Desroches, in partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the town of Mille-Isles, Que.

A project manager for the Nature Conservancy of Canada told a town meeting today that the organization will spend about $3.5 million to acquire some 82 per cent of the land.

Catherine Lefebvre said the organization is acquiring more than 200 hectares, but will cede around 90 of them to the town of Mille-Isles, about 70 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

Opened in 1912, the camp closed in 2019 after what Scouts Canada called years of successive financial hardship and looming costly repairs. Scouts Canada previously described the property as the oldest operating Scout camp in the world.

Desroches told the meeting that the portion of the land he will own will be developed into an ecotourism project, but that he hasn’t yet worked out the details.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2025.