24 Sussex costs more to maintain while vacant
Renovation may cost four times value of property
• The federal government is examining a proposal to fix up the vacant official residence of Canada’s prime minister that could cost about four times its assessed value of $9.67 million.
And while it figures out what to do with 24 Sussex Drive, the government is paying tens of thousands of dollars every month just to maintain the now-vacant property — including more than $10,000 a month on hydro — the National Post has learned.
For the month of December 2015, for example, with no one living at the 151-yearold home, the total maintenance bill for 24 Sussex was more than $50,000, according to documents released to the Post using federal access-to-information laws.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chose not to move into 24 Sussex, partly on concerns about security. He lives on the grounds of Rideau Hall in a house known as Rideau Cottage.
But now the costs of securing the prime minister’s official residence and doing the necessary renovations could cost many times the assessed value of the property.
For the 2015 tax year, the assessed value of the property was $9.673 million, according to records on the City of Ottawa’s tax rolls, obtained by the Ottawa Citizen and National Post.
The official residence sits on 3.98 acres on a plateau at the edge of an escarpment, with more than 200 metres of river frontage and a spectacular view of the Ottawa River and Gatineau Hills.
For the billing period from Jan. 24, 2015 to Feb. 22, 2015 — again, with no family in the residence — the cost of electricity was $10,232. Just for one month.
Altogether for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2016, the total bill for heat, hydro, gas and maintenance at 24 Sussex was $272,302 for an average of $22,692 a month in that fiscal year.
The documents obtained by the National Post — records of monthly maintenance costs from January 2015 through to June 2016 — show that it cost less to maintain the home when a family was living there then when no family is living there.
In the final 10 months when the Harpers were the occupants, maintaining the home cost an average of $16,550. With no family living there, the cost averaged $27,025 from November 2015 to June 2016.
Reporters from iPolitics and the Huffington Post reported this week that proposals have been put together for a re-fit, demolition or re-location of the official prime minister’s residence with price tags running from between $38 million and $562 million.