Staying put

Overheating toasters are the least of Parliamentary Service’s worries when it comes to Bowen House. Forced to take on the lease for the building for another 11 years, it will have to spend $7.7 million this year, almost double last year’s amount, to improve bathrooms, fraying carpets and escalators, which the service had not previously anticipated refurbishing. It is also faced with changing the lease twice on Bowen House, with inflationadjusted rent changes. And the service has no negotiating power, as everyone knows Bowen House’s inhabitants have nowhere else to go.