Gas heat, if Énergir's line actually reaches your street.

It depends on the street. Westmount sits in one of the older parts of Énergir's Montréal-area network, and plenty of the borough's early-20th-century greystones already have a gas line feeding a furnace or water heater, which makes adding a fireplace a straightforward tie-in. But Énergir's coverage across the region is described as partial, not universal, and some blocks—particularly newer infill or homes that were fully electrified at some point—have no gas service at all. A local dealer can confirm meter access for your specific address before you spend time picking a model.

Typical installs run $6,000 to $15,000 CAD. On the low end are inserts going into an existing masonry firebox on a home that already has gas service nearby—common in the older greystones around the Village or upper Westmount. The top of the range covers new built-in units in a renovation, especially where gas line extension, a new chimney chase, or electrical work for a blower is involved. Homes without Énergir access that opt for a propane tank instead typically land in the same install range, with the tank setup as a separate line item.

Yes, with propane. It's a common workaround in parts of Westmount and the wider Montréal region that sit outside Énergir's actual distribution footprint. A propane tank, whether buried or set discreetly at the side of the property, feeds the same direct-vent fireplace or insert you'd install on natural gas—the appliance itself is often configurable for either fuel. It's worth pricing propane delivery and tank rental into your ongoing costs, since it runs higher per unit of heat than piped gas.

Yes. The municipal building department issues the permit for the appliance and venting, and the actual gas connection has to be done by a licensed gas fitter under Régie du bâtiment du Québec rules—not something a general contractor can sign off on. Most established hearth dealers who work in Westmount coordinate both the building permit and the licensed gas-fitting work as part of the project, which matters in a borough with a lot of heritage housing where inspectors pay close attention to venting through original masonry.

Direct-vent units, which pull outside air for combustion and exhaust sealed gases back outside, are the standard here and what nearly every local dealer will spec for a primary installation. True vent-free appliances face tighter restrictions under Quebec's gas code and aren't the default choice for continuous residential use, so if a listing advertises a vent-free unit, confirm with your dealer that it's actually approved for your specific home and room size before you commit to it.

Wood has real staying power here: sugar maple, yellow birch, and red oak are the species most local burners split, and plenty of Westmount's older masonry fireplaces were built for exactly that. The catch is that Montréal-area municipalities, including Westmount, require wood-burning appliances to be registered and certified to emit no more than 2.5 grams of fine particles per hour—a normal step a good local dealer handles routinely, not a barrier, but it does mean older uncertified fireplace inserts generally need replacing. Gas skips that certification question entirely, which is one reason homeowners on a served street often choose it for convenience, while keeping a certified wood stove or insert elsewhere as backup.

Hydro-Québec's residential rate, around 7.8 cents per kWh, is genuinely one of the cheapest in the country, and it's a big reason electric fireplaces and inserts—typically $500 to $1,600 CAD installed—are so common across Westmount and the wider region as a simple retrofit with no gas-line question to sort out. Gas still wins on flame realism and higher heat output for anyone using the fireplace as real supplemental heat rather than ambiance, and running cost per BTU is usually lower than electric resistance heat even at Hydro-Québec's rates. If your street already has Énergir service, it's a reasonable comparison to run with your dealer rather than an automatic choice either way.

Plan on an annual check, ideally scheduled in late summer or early fall before demand ramps up ahead of the first cold stretch. A licensed technician checks the pilot assembly, burner, gas connections, and venting, and cleans the glass—typically $150 to $250 CAD for a standard visit. It's a lighter job than a wood chimney sweep, but skipping it on a unit that runs daily through a Westmount winter is how an ignition problem shows up on the coldest night, not the most convenient one.

Often, yes, and it's a common request in Westmount's older greystones where the original masonry firebox was built for cordwood decades before Énergir's lines reached the block. A gas insert with a liner run through the existing chimney is usually the simplest path, generally landing toward the lower half of the $6,000-$15,000 range since the chimney structure and often the gas service are already in place. The one prerequisite is confirming gas access to the house first—if it isn't there, a propane conversion or an electric insert are the realistic alternatives your dealer will walk you through.

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.

Four numbers tell you what fits: the front width, the front height, the back width, and the overall depth of your existing fireplace opening. Grab a tape measure, jot those down, and snap a photo of the wall—those two things do more to move your project forward than anything else you can do today.

Most fireplaces are a thin metal box—they heat fine, but you rely on the fan to move the warmth into the room. Radiant models use a thick cast-ceramic firebox, about an inch and a quarter thick, that soaks up the fire's heat and radiates roughly 25–30% more warmth into the room with no fan running. If you watch TV in the same room or want heat in a power outage, radiant is worth asking about.