Freshly renovated Federal Building rooms sit empty

If the media rooms in Edmonton’s Federal Building could speak, they would likely wax lyrical about loneliness.

Despite more than $100,000 in upgrades since June 2015, the rooms are yet to be used for a single news conference.

The media room in the basement is run by the Public Affairs Bureau, the government’s communications arm.

It’s decked out with new technical equipment, and folding couch chairs in cinema-like rows face a spotlit front desk and large screens.

It received a $77,222 adjustment to its ceiling height in June and is used for the odd meeting here and there, but that’s about it.

Next door is an embargo room, with tables and chairs scattered around and a tea cart at the ready by the wall.

In June 2015, the two rooms received new signs at a cost of $5,300, and extra insulation to reduce noise from the fountain upstairs for $1,089.

Two floors up, the non-partisan Legislative Assembly Office runs the second media room.

When the LAO moved into the building a couple of years ago, the room took a back seat to other projects.

Now it’s earmarked for news conferences following all-party committee meetings that grind through the meat and potatoes of governance — the public accounts committee, for example, which reviews auditor general recommendations, or the budget-approving legislative offices committee.

The LAO hopes to have the room ready for the spring session starting March 2, though there’s still fiddly audiovisual work to be done and light bulbs to install in empty sockets.

The room received a new power outlet in January for $435 and was part of $281,000 audiovisual overhaul throughout the building in May.

The $375-million Federal Building renovation project ran years behind schedule and $100 million over budget, and was labelled a symbol of government waste by the opposition.

Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason said although the media room upgrades were paid for after the NDP took power, most work was done at the behest of the former Progressive Conservative administration.

Still, the price tag for audiovisual system upgrades last February, requested by Public Affairs, came in at close to $20,000.

Wildrose democracy and accountability critic Nathan Cooper questioned why the NDP didn’t halt the work when it took office.

He called the most recent spending “excessive waste.”