Heritage Ottawa calls on feds to make a decision on future home of prime minister

The official prime minister's residence, 24 Sussex Drive, is pictured.

Heritage Ottawa is calling on the federal government to make a decision on the future of 24 Sussex Drive and move forward on a plan for the future home of the prime minister in Ottawa.

No prime minister has lived at the official residence of the prime minister on Sussex Drive in Ottawa since Stephen Harper in 2015, and the National Capital Commission (NCC) closed the building to the public in 2022. Prime Minister Mark Carney lives at Rideau Cottage on the grounds of Rideau Hall.

• PM Carney says he has no plans to tackle 24 Sussex question during his mandate

The NCC completed abatement and decommissioning work at 24 Sussex Drive in 2024 to address health and safety issues and remove “obsolete mechanical, heating and electrical systems.” The NCC also conducted an “abatement of designated substances, such as asbestos.”

“Everything has been torn out of the building,” Katherine Spencer-Ross, president of Heritage Ottawa, told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll.

“The shell is there, it’s ready to have something done to it, so let’s make a decision and move forward.”

• A look inside the gutted 24 Sussex Drive

Spencer-Ross says she would like to see the official residence of the prime minister remain at 24 Sussex Drive, overlooking the Ottawa River.

“It has got lots of heritage character to it; it has got a heritage designation; it’s a classified heritage building. It has potential and the property has lots of potential,” Spencer-Ross said Thursday morning.

“One could absolutely restore the building, and if the prime minister’s requirements are to have more space, an addition is a possibility or a separate building.”

24 Sussex Drive was built in 1867. The main building includes 34 rooms, as well as another small home at 10 Sussex Drive, a pool house and two RCMP guard houses.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau and his family opted to live across the street at Rideau Cottage after he was elected in 2015.

Photos released by the NCC in the spring of 2024 showed a gutted 24 Sussex Drive, with bare walls in the building.

A June 2021 report from the NCC said it would cost $36.6 million to restore 24 Sussex Drive to “good condition.”

Spencer-Ross says the federal government needs to be convinced that the prime minister “needs a house” and it should be 24 Sussex Drive.

“It’s an optics thing. I can understand a prime minister of the day saying, ‘No, I don’t want to be seen spending money.’ The problem is, over the years and over the decades, each successive prime minister has said, ‘I don’t want to be seen to be doing anything with 24 Sussex,’” Spencer-Ross said.

“You know, with your own house, if you don’t do regular maintenance, it’s going to fall apart. The longer you leave a house vacant, or at least maintained, the more expensive it’s going to be in the end to fix it.”

The NCC says on its website that it has presented options for the “future of the official residence of the prime minister of Canada to the government is awaiting a government decision.”

Spencer-Ross says if 24 Sussex Drive is “deemed not to be big enough for what is required,” the government should renovate the existing building and then build “something else.”

“Whether it’s an addition or a separate building,” Spencer-Ross said.

“Yes, have a competition. Have Canadian architects use their imaginations. It’s like the interior of the building; it’s a blank canvas. Take the opportunity to do something that is spectacular.”

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