Change in the air for Ottawa’s Centre Block
Tours will end for a decade as aging building is renovated
OTTAWA — The lineup to tour one of Canada’s most iconic buildings forms early in summer and stretches down the block before the start of the business day.
The face of the Peace Tower rises high above Parliament Hill in Ottawa, staring back at visitors on the shaded sidewalk. With ticket in hand, they walk up the hill and into the halls of the Centre Block flanked by the green carpeted House of Commons on one end and the red-adorned Senate on the other.
But soon the tours of the Centre Block will end, paused for a decade while the aging building undergoes a historic makeover.
The Centre Block will close in January for as part of a sweeping rehabilitation project of the buildings on and around Parliament Hill that was launched in 2002 with work on the Library of Parliament.
The building has aging water, electrical and mechanical systems that are in as much need of repair as the mortar on the structure, and it can’t meet modern technological and security demands.
The Centre Block was born from the ashes of a fire in 1916 that left the original structure in ruins, claimed seven lives, but spared the Library of Parliament thanks to iron fire doors. The unfinished replacement opened four years later in 1920. The Peace Tower and building itself were officially dedicated in 1927.
Each year, more than 350,000 visitors take guided tours of the building and the largest cohort arrive between Canada Day and Labour Day. During the twomonth stretch when school is out for summer — and so, too, are parliamentarians — about 100,000 people explore the building.
The tours take about 50 minutes in the summer, but can be as short at 20 minutes when politicians are debating policy in the fall, winter and spring.
Guides talk about the history of the building, and the people who work in it, as groups wander through the Gothic Revival architecture of the Hall of Honour, stare at the vaulted stained glass ceiling in the foyer of the House of Commons, look at the historical sculptures outside the entrance to the Senate, and see the chambers of Parliament.
But as the renovations on the old building take shape, the tours will undergo changes as well.
Political offices inside the Centre Block are slowly being moved to neighbouring buildings so construction workers can peer behind walls on upper levels to assess the work that’s required.
The Library of Parliament, which oversees tours, says the office moves and pre-construction work won’t affect Centre Block tour times and routes. A big difference visitors might notice closer to Christmas is fewer pieces of art, which will be moved out to prepare for work.
Guides will talk about renovations when more visible pre-construction work launches, a Library spokeswoman said.
The House of Commons will move into a temporary home in the West Block building, while the Senate will settle into Ottawa’s former downtown railway station near the base of the Rideau Canal.
Instead of touring one building, visitors will be able to book tickets for guided tours of each of these temporary abodes for parliamentarians over the next 10 years. The Library of Parliament says it plans to launch a new online reservation and ticketing system that allows for advance booking of guided tours at each location.
Tickets will still be available for anyone who wants to sit in the public viewing galleries and watch daily debates in the House of Commons or Senate.
An annual summer sound and light show, projected on the facade of the Centre Block will also be affected by work. The department of Canadian Heritage, which oversees the show, says the nightly exhibition will continue to be projected on the building until the fall of 2019 — but won’t say what happens to the show after that.
Much of what the post-2018 parliamentary tour looks like will be unveiled in the fall.
But this much is known: At the end of January 2019, the last tour group will move through the Centre Block — and the next may not arrive until 2029.