Don’t tear down this national treasure
Please, don’t tear it down.
There’s been much discussion recently about what to do about 24 Sussex Drive, the dilapidated official residence of Canada’s prime minister. Some, including my colleague Susan Delacourt, have argued Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should knock it down and make Rideau Cottage the new official residence. In my view, that would be a mistake.
While 24 Sussex, a grey-stone 34room residence built in 1867 and home to most prime ministers since 1951, isn’t an architectural masterpiece, it is historically significant. It also sits on a beautiful parcel of land, with sweeping views of the Ottawa River and Gatineau Hills, on the city’s most prestigious street.
Why should Canadians pay the price for decades of inaction by prime ministers — notably the last two, Trudeau and Stephen Harper — whose unwillingness to invest in upkeep led us to this dire situation of neglect and costly repairs?
If Trudeau treated his own property this way — choosing to move into an apartment over the garage, leaving his home to rot because maintenance was prohibitive — we would all think he didn’t know how to manage his affairs.
Sussex is a grand promenade, home to more than a dozen significant buildings and embassies. Across the road from 24 Sussex is the governor general’s, and next door the French embassy. Nearby, the United Kingdom high commissioner lives in former prime minister John A. Macdonald’s old manor. Soon their front lawn will be home to a new green high commission. Having Canada’s prime minister vacate 24 Sussex to permanently reside in a place known as a “cottage” — like a squatter on the grounds of the Queen’s representative — seems absurd.
It made sense in 2015 for Trudeau to move into Rideau Cottage, the nondescript home of the governor general’s secretary since 1866, because it was easily secured and had been renovated in 2012. (Since then, the Star revealed, more than $3.1 million has been spent on the property.) The official residence needed a lot of work and Trudeau’s stay would be temporary — at least that’s what cabinet ministers were told to tell the public, according to Question Period notes.
Six years later, Trudeau has yet to decide on the future of the property and costs are rising. Even worse, the Liberal government seems intent to blame the delay on the National Capital Commission (NCC), the arm’s-length body charged with overseeing the six official residences. It has been begging and pleading with the government for years to give it the money needed to repair the deteriorating residences, of which 24 Sussex is the most critical.
When asked why a decision hadn’t yet been made and when the prime minister’s last briefing was, the government’s response was that the NCC “is responsible for year-round maintenance and operations.”
“The NCC recognizes the significance of these official residences and is committed to working with their partners to ensure that issues related to security, heritage preservation, sustainability, and accessibility are addressed,” wrote James Fitz-Morris, spokesperson for Public Works Minister Filomena Tassi and the person tasked with responding to me. “We will continue to support the NCC in their important work,” he added.
Supporting the NCC would mean increasing its budget, and finally choosing one of the several options for rebuilding 24 Sussex. The NCC has proposed several visions — from relocation to renovations to rebuilding, ranging up to, I’m told, $250 million. A local architecture firm has offered a plan for a zerocarbon reno; even Carleton University architecture students worked with the RCMP to reimagine the home.
Without extra cash and a decision, the NCC can’t start major work on the property.
Its annual budget last year was $22 million; it is supposed to spend no more than $3 million a year on the upkeep of official residences and their 49 ancillary buildings. But the NCC usually spends double that. The commission asked for $175 million over 10 years last year to address the “deferred maintenance deficit” and to adapt the properties to new building codes, as well as new accessibility and sustainability requirements passed by the federal Liberals. (The six official residences produce 60 per cent of the NCC’s total greenhouse gas emissions.) In 2018, the NCC had asked for $83 million.
The NCC, in its latest asset report, suggests severe government underfunding is preventing it from fulfilling its job under the law — to conserve places of public interest.
Fixing 24 Sussex won’t be cheap. There are a litany of problems, from removing the asbestos and mould, to replacing mechanical and electrical systems. The NCC says the home needs accessible washrooms and new dining and event facilities to support official functions. It pegs the cost at $40 million, but that doesn’t include security, grounds, pool or site infrastructure.
(Since Trudeau took over, $1.35 million has been spent on 24 Sussex. The prime minister’s chef continues to work out of its kitchen.)
A major problem with the home is it is too close to the street and needs a steel and concrete shell. According to information obtained from a 2016 access to information request, security costs are about $32 million. But there are ranges here, too, with one option having a batcavelike “safe haven/command centre” built under the home, complete with a marine evacuation system for $54 million.
David Flemming, past president of Heritage Ottawa, thinks it would be a “terrible thing to tear (24 Sussex) down” but he worries the classified property will go the way of other heritage buildings owned by unco-operative landlords in the city, a victim of “demolition by neglect.” His group twice wrote to Trudeau urging him to make a decision or appoint a non-partisan chair to recommend a path forward, if he wanted to be spared the public backlash. (One reason often cited by political staff is the prime minister’s fear of being seen to spend an incomprehensible sum — tens of millions of dollars — on his own residence.)
Lyette Fortin, an adjunct professor at Carleton University and the NCC’s former chief project manager, said the rehabilitation should have been done decades ago.
“This property belongs to Canadians and not to the government,” she wrote in an email. “The government has a responsibility to maintain and manage the heritage properties that belong to all of us.”
I couldn’t agree more.
The prime minister’s official residence, 24 Sussex, which sits on the banks of the Ottawa River, won’t be cheap to fix it, Althia Raj writes, but it’s worth saving