Ottawa warned on crumbling buildings

• Officials warned the government late last year that without a significant boost in repair funds, aging and crumbling federal buildings could soon become unfit for workers.

The situation — outlined in briefings to Public Services Minister Judy Foote in November last year, shortly after the Liberals took office and Foote took up her ministerial posting — appeared dire.

The department was so cash- strapped it could no longer pay for building inspections to uncover health and safety risks. Utilities and services could stop without additional funding, say the documents, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

And service levels had fallen so much that they were “well below” what the government’s private service providers were giving their non- government clients. In the past fiscal year, officials calculated they needed at least $200 million to cover a budget shortfall and operate at minimal service levels.

Department officials estimated they would need at least $ 350 million a year to pay for badly needed repairs and maintenance work that had been scaled back for years under budget cuts instituted by the previous Conservative government. The money would cover what the documents describe as an annual shortfall in funding that means the government “cannot repair its portfolio” of buildings.

The Liberals have set aside $248 million for repairs and maintenance to federal buildings so far this fiscal year, which would be $102 million short of what the department officials had estimated was needed. However, a spokeswoman for Foote said the number was just a “preliminary forecast” for possible requirements.

Jessica Turner said in an email that the government remained “committed to providing safe, healthy and productive work environments for federal employees and occupants of buildings it owns and manages.”