{"id":31024,"date":"2025-05-07T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/?p=31024"},"modified":"2025-05-14T13:04:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T18:04:50","slug":"q-a-a-eddy-savoie-les-residences-soleil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/news\/q-a-a-eddy-savoie-les-residences-soleil\/","title":{"rendered":"A Q&A with Les R\u00e9sidences Soleil\u2019s Eddy Savoie: Minding your business\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u00ab In the m\u00e9dias \u00bb<\/strong> By\u00a0Anthony Bonaparte, The Suburban<\/a> – May 7, 2025.<\/h4>\n\n\n
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\"The<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Born in November 1943 in Kedgwick, a tiny French-speaking community in northern New Brunswick, Eddy Savoie, at age 15, moved to Montreal with less than $5 in his pockets, finding work as a labourer. By age 28 he was a successful contractor working on major real estate projects. In 1988, at age 45, Savoie built the first Les R\u00e9sidences Soleil seniors\u2019 residence in Boucherville<\/a>, Quebec. Today, Groupe Savoie \u2014 a family-run business that includes his wife, five children, and a number of grandchildren \u2014 owns and operates 15 residences<\/a> throughout the province, employing almost 2,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suburban<\/em>\u202frecently spoke to Eddy Savoie<\/a>, 81, founder and chairman of the board of directors, and his eldest daughter Nataly Savoie<\/a>, executive president, from their head office in Boucherville. The conversation has been translated from the original French and edited for length and clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suburban:<\/strong>\u202f How did your early years in New Brunswick shape you?<\/font><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddy Savoie:<\/strong>\u202f We lived near a small village. There was no industry, except mainly lumberjacking. Our parents usually worked about six months out of the year for little pay, so when the kids turned 15 or 16, most would leave for Toronto, Montreal, or the U.S. to work and send back money. We were eight kids in our family and when I turned 15, it was my time to leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suburban:<\/strong>\u202f You soon became a successful builder. What prompted you to open a senior\u2019s residence?<\/font><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddy Savoie:<\/strong>\u202f My parents came to live with me eight or nine years after I arrived. By that time, I was doing small construction work. Eventually, my father started to lose his autonomy. I had a wife and children, so we started to look for a place that could take care of both my parents. I found some nice ones, but they didn\u2019t offer all the services required, like 24-hour care. So, it all began as a true love story for my parents, because they were very important to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suburban: How did you choose the name, Les R\u00e9sidences Soleil?<\/font><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddy Savoie:<\/strong>\u202f Someone said, \u2018Why don\u2019t we call it Les R\u00e9sidences Soleil [sun] because most people want to retire in the sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suburban: Was that first residence a new concept at that time?<\/font><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddy Savoie:<\/strong> \u202fThere was nothing in Quebec that offered all the services, with someone at the reception desk 24 hours a day. From that point on, people felt secure. I also wanted to have good food, and a variety of amenities like pool tables, a swimming pool, sauna, even therapeutic whirlpools. I wanted my parents to have what they had with me. But I wanted these services to be available to everyone at a reasonable price.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suburban: Was Quebec alone in not offering these services or did they exist elsewhere?<\/font><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nataly Savoie:<\/strong>\u202f In the late 1980s, seniors\u2019 residences tended to be more like boarding homes, or apartment buildings reserved for seniors. But the concept of full- integrated residences \u2014 with everything required for seniors to live safely, and with all these services available \u2014 that did not exist. Happily, 40 years later, the situation has gotten much better. These are no longer places where you go to die, but like big Club Meds for people of a certain age. We also kept in mind the people with limited financial resources, so we wanted to make the residences as affordable as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddy Savoie:<\/strong> \u202fMy parents had no money. I understand what it is to have no money. That\u2019s why I wanted to create something that would be accessible to all Quebecers. I knew what it was like to be poor.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suburban: What are the challenges today of running this type of business?<\/font><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddy Savoie:<\/strong>\u202f Offering top-of-the-line services at a reasonable price and maintaining a cost structure that everyone can live with. We are a family business, and we won\u2019t start a new project until all our other residences are doing well.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suburban: What are your proudest accomplishments as a CEO?<\/font><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddy Savoie:<\/strong>\u202f My family. My entire family. The company might build nice residences, but seeing my family evolve within the organization \u2014 my children and my grandchildren \u2014 that\u2019s what\u2019s important. If you want to keep Quebec companies in Quebec, you must create the framework to run them from here. And when it\u2019s done within a family, it\u2019s very satisfying.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suburban: So, selling is not an option?<\/font><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddy Savoie:<\/strong>\u202f Absolutely not! We have had Japanese, Australian, American, and Chinese investors come knocking on our doors. But if we\u2019re of interest to them, it must mean we\u2019re doing something right \u2014 and we\u2019re very proud!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00ab In the m\u00e9dias \u00bb By\u00a0Anthony Bonaparte, The Suburban – May 7, 2025. Born in November 1943 in Kedgwick, a tiny French-speaking community in northern New Brunswick, Eddy Savoie, at age 15, moved to Montreal with less than $5 in his pockets, finding work as a labourer. By age 28 he was a successful contractor …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":31015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"1850,1827,1802,1819,1870,1806","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"global_category":[],"class_list":["post-31024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31024"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31029,"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31024\/revisions\/31029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31024"},{"taxonomy":"global_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/residencessoleil.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global_category?post=31024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}