The Ottawa Citizen's Maria Cook today lays it on the line so far as the health of our Parliament Buildings are concerned.
Every morning, as I walk up from the spot where I park my car (in what is known as The Pit, behind the Supreme Court) I've been noticing the sturdy and immense scaffolding that has now enveloped the rear of the West Block (pictured above, as seen from in front of the Bank of Montreal building Maria refers to in her piece, with the Centre Block's Peace Tower at the rear right). Maria informs me that that scaffolding is there, essentially, to support towers etc. as just about every mason in Ottawa takes the West Block apart brick by brick before re-assembling it. That will take 10 years.
And once they've got the West Block fixed up, then they'll be starting in on the Centre Block. And while the Centre Block is being fixed up, the House of Commons will move for the first time ever since 1920– to the West Block. Remarkable.
Oh and all of this ain't cheap. It will cost more than $1 billion to fix these two treasures …
The federal government will convert the former Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography into committee rooms for MPs as part of its plan to vacate the crumbling West Block next year, the Citizen has learned.
The Department of Public Works plans to empty the West Block by the fall of 2010 in order to proceed with a long-delayed major rehabilitation. The project will take 10 years and cost more than $1.3 billion, including renovation of interim space for West Block occupants and functions.
The West Block is a three-storey building that houses 50 members of Parliament, seven committee rooms, the food production facility for Parliament Hill and the Confederation Room 200, a ceremonial space.
“The West Block has deteriorated significantly,” said Public Works project director Rob Wright, adding that it was in the worst shape of all the Parliament Buildings.
“The building is at the end of its lifecycle and it requires a stem-to-stern rehabilitation inside and out.”
When the West Block is completed in 2020, the House of Commons will relocate there for five to seven years while the Centre Block undergoes an overhaul. That means question period, parliamentary debates and other House of Commons proceedings will take place in a new chamber to be built in the courtyard of the West Block….
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The House of Commons has moved before — from 1916 to 1920 it sat at what was then called the Victoria Memorial Museum Building.
Thanks for the corrective!