OTTAWA — The Carney government will announce Friday that it plans to “restore” 24 Sussex Dr., ending a decade-old mystery about the future of the prime minister’s official residence.
The residence has been uninhabited for about 11 years due to an array of problems with the home, including heating and cooling, outdated wiring, asbestos, water damage, mould, rodents, and more practical problems such as insufficient space for offices and events.
While heritage advocates will cheer the announcement to renovate and perhaps expand the home, some officials familiar with the stone mansion’s challenges suggested it would be better to simply build a new leader’s residence on a different site.
Prime Minister Mark Carney had been asked Thursday during a press conference what he’d like to see happen to the residence, and responded that was one subject that he wouldn’t discuss until the next day. “Great question,” Carney told reporters. “I’ll have a press conference tomorrow to answer that.”
A media advisory later in the day said Carney planned to make an announcement Friday morning about the government’s decision to “restore” the residence.
The decision will no doubt please many history and heritage buffs, not to mention Canadians who view the home as one of the country’s most famous sites. In a letter to Carney last fall, Katherine Spencer-Ross, president of Heritage Ottawa, wrote that 24 Sussex is a special historic site and is worth a full rehabilitation. The residence is one of a suite of buildings — including the Parliament buildings — designed in the gothic revival style, she wrote.
“24 Sussex is not just any home. It is a nationally significant place that belongs to all Canadians, not to a prime minister nor to any political party.”
But advocates have also argued that the home is part of Canadian history and has inherent advantages, including its location overlooking the Ottawa River that is picturesque and carries security advantages. It’s also just a couple of kilometres from Parliament Hill.
The 35-room mansion served as the prime minister’s official residence from 1951 to 2015 and apparently will return to service after its lengthy renovation.
Carney, like Trudeau, has lived at Rideau Cottage, across the road from 24 Sussex on the grounds of the Governor General’s residence at Rideau Hall. Built in the late 1860s, it didn’t become the prime minister’s home for almost a century. It was closed by the National Capital Commission in 2022 for “health and safety reasons,” including an infestation of rats.
The big remaining question is whether the government decides to complete a modest renovation that makes the building functional for future prime ministers, or whether it plans to create something more elaborate that serves as a national showpiece.
Spencer-Ross wrote Thursday in an email that if more space is required at the site, her group would prefer a new addition or separate structure that is compatible with the existing building and landscape.
The Liberal governments have avoided making a decision about the property for the last decade, presumably because they didn’t want to be seen to be spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on their own leader, particularly during a housing crisis. In the meantime, however, millions have already been spent on restorations while the home has been vacant.
Asked what he thinks should happen to 24 Sussex, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters on Thursday that it’s not something he thinks about.
“When I see the homelessness in our streets, and I see the young people who are desperate to start families, but can’t get a house to do it,” the opposition leader said. “I just think the last thing on our minds should be 24 Sussex Drive.”
The eventual cost of the renovations, at a time of high federal deficits and low housing stock, will likely present a communications challenge. The specific plans chosen for the site will of course determine the final bill, but it’s expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Five years ago, the National Capital Commission (NCC) wrote a report that it said it would cost $36.6 million to restore 24 Sussex Drive to “good condition.” That price tag did not include any grand expansions or new buildings.
While some taxpayers may balk at the price of the renovation, others have urged the government to make something that Canadians can be proud of.
“What does it say about us as a country that our prime minister’s house is a ruin?” Toon Dreessen, president of Ottawa Architects DCA, told National Post this spring.
Carney has talked in recent months about renovating 24 Sussex so that future prime ministers could return to living at the official residence but has acknowledged that the changes will take too long for he and his family to live there.
Commissioned in 1868 as a private residence by Joseph Merrill Currier, a lumber tycoon and Ottawa MP who was first elected shortly after Confederation, 24 Sussex sits on a 2.1-hectare property overlooking the Ottawa River. Initially called Gorffwysfa (Welsh for “The Place of Peace”), the home has 35 rooms and 12,000-square-foot residence, but is modest when compared to the official residences of other national leaders.
In addition to the living areas for the prime minister and their family, there’s an official guest house on the grounds, a swimming pool and pool house, security buildings and small gatehouses at the entrance for security screening. Bordered by security fencing and barriers, the grounds also include a detached garage and areas for small outside events.
Classified as a Federal Heritage Building, 24 Sussex has been home to 10 prime ministers since 1951. Yet some of those leaders were far from pleased with their accommodations, with temperature control being a common complaint. As former prime minister Paul Martin summed it up: “Too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer.”
National Post
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