Gas heat here depends on which street you're on.

Installed gas fireplace projects here typically run $6,000 to $15,000 CAD. The low end covers a direct-vent insert dropping into an existing masonry firebox on a street already served by Énergir. The high end usually reflects a propane setup—tank, regulator, and buried line—for a home off the natural gas network, or a new built-in unit that needs venting run through an exterior wall from scratch. A local dealer will know within a few minutes which situation your address falls into.

Only in parts of town. Énergir's network reaches a portion of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, but coverage is partial rather than town-wide, and plenty of streets—particularly toward the rural edges near the arboretum and the lakeshore—have no gas main nearby. Before you shop for a fireplace, it's worth having a local dealer confirm whether your address sits on a served line or whether propane is the realistic path. That single check meaningfully changes the project cost.

Yes, with propane. A propane-fired direct-vent fireplace looks and operates almost identically to a natural gas unit, and most manufacturer-authorized dealers in the region carry models that run on either fuel. You'll need a propane tank—usually a buried or side-yard tank sized to the appliance—which adds cost up front but avoids waiting on Énergir to prioritize a gas main extension for a single residential connection.

It's a common request in the older homes around the village core, where a masonry fireplace built decades ago is now more upkeep than the owner wants. A gas insert generally slides into that existing firebox with a liner run up the current chimney, and depending on whether you're on natural gas or propane, the project usually lands between $6,000 and $12,000 CAD. If the fireplace was burning sugar maple or red oak as the household's main heat source, most owners keep a backup plan for outages rather than dropping wood heat entirely.

Yes. You'll need a building permit through the municipal building department, and the gas connection itself has to be done by a licensed gas fitter under Quebec's code requirements. Most dealers who regularly install in the region handle both the permit application and the final inspection as part of the project, which is worth confirming before you sign a quote.

Models with intermittent pilot ignition run their electronics off a small battery pack that kicks in automatically, so they'll still light during an outage. Continuous-pilot models skip the battery altogether since the pilot's thermocouple generates its own current. Given how the West Island's tree cover means outages aren't rare after a winter ice event, it's a fair question to ask your dealer before settling on a model, especially if the fireplace is meant to double as backup heat.

Direct-vent units, which pull combustion air from outside and exhaust sealed venting back outside, are the standard and safest option and what most dealers install as a matter of course. Vent-free models are legal in some circumstances but carry strict room-sizing limits, and given how tightly built newer homes in the area tend to be for energy efficiency, most local dealers steer homeowners toward direct-vent so indoor air quality isn't a tradeoff.

An annual check is the standard recommendation, ideally scheduled in late summer or early fall before the first cold snap rather than mid-winter when technicians are booked solid. The visit covers the burner, pilot assembly, gas connections, and glass cleaning, and typically runs $150 to $250 CAD. It's a lighter commitment than a wood chimney sweep, but skipping it on a unit that runs daily through a five-month heating season is how a pilot or ignition issue shows up on the coldest night.

With Hydro-Québec rates around 7.8 cents per kWh, an electric fireplace is the cheapest and simplest option to run and needs no permit beyond a standard outlet or circuit, which is why it's common as a secondary or ambience unit. Wood, burning sugar maple, yellow birch, American beech, or red oak cut under an MRNF permit, keeps working without electricity and remains popular in older village homes, though Montréal-area bylaws require the appliance to be registered and certified low-emission—a step any established local dealer builds into the project. Gas sits in between: it's more convenient than wood and more of a genuine heat source than most electric units, but only makes sense once you've confirmed your street has Énergir service or you're comfortable adding a propane tank.

Most modern gas fireplaces can—turn it on and off from the couch with a remote, or set a room temperature and let the fireplace hold the comfort zone for you. If low maintenance matters to your family, this is the feature set that makes gas the convenience pick over wood and pellet.

Because a fireplace is an iceberg—there's more behind the wall than in front of it. A low quote often covers only the unit; the full scope includes vent pipe, gas line or electrical, framing, and the tile or stone that has to come off and go back on. Make every bidder price the whole job. If a dealer can't speak to the full scope with confidence, that's your signal to keep looking.

Yes—with an asterisk. Fireplaces are hot and TVs don't like heat. Either put a mantel between them to deflect rising warmth, or choose a fireplace with heat-management technology that creates a cool zone on the wall above—the wall stays around 125 degrees, barely warm, while the room still gets full heat. If you like clean lines and don't want a mantel, heat management is the answer.

An insert does two things: it seals the chimney completely, so you stop losing air you already paid to heat, and it radiates warmth into the room through the firebox and glass. Most add a heat-exchange fan that pulls cool room air underneath, wraps it around the hot firebox, and pushes it back out warm. Your home is more efficient before you've even lit the first fire.