Parliament’s Centre Block rehabilitation remains focused on preservation

CTV’s Tyler Fleming took a tour inside and underneath Centre Block on Parliament Hill, with the massive rehabilitation project still years away from completion.

From heritage preservation to modern earthquake-proof foundations, the decade-long rehabilitation of Parliament’s Centre Block is the country’s largest construction site.

From the outside, aside from a few cranes and some scaffolding, Centre Block looks familiar. To know the scale and depths of the project, you have to go inside.

Parliament’s restoration reaches nearly two storeys underground, where most of this work will never be seen by the public.

Joe Farquharson, superintendent with Taggart Construction, says crews have been excavating the ground from and placing the entire load of the building onto steel beams in order to replace the existing foundation and supports with modern, earthquake-proof systems.

“The original concrete footings have been covered in a protection, and we poured a newer, external shell of reinforced concrete around the original footings,” he says. “Right now, we have steel piles that have been driven around the perimeter of the existing footings down to the full depth of the excavation—about 18 metres—and that right now is holding up Parliament.”

On the main floor, the walls, primarily Tindall limestone, remain carefully covered. Scraping Centre Block down to its original brick walls has been completed and restoration has begun.

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About 50 “high heritage” spaces will be restored close to their original designs, first imagined by architect John A. Pearson after the 1916 fire.

One of those rooms included in the project is Salon de la Francophonie. Once a Senators’ smoking room in the 1940s, will maintain its cathedral-like design and wooden benches while being updated for accessibility.

“If you look around, you can see a lot of the attention to detail that we will be bringing back to the space and maintaining the preservation of it,” says Louise Cowley, director of long-term vision and plan and accommodation with the Senate of Canada. “The intent of the Salon de la Francophonie is to make it safer, more accessible and to meet the needs of a modern parliamentary democracy.”

On the sixth floor, the parliamentary dining hall is getting a makeover, which includes a new kitchen. Darrell de Grandmont, director of the Centre Block program for the House of Commons, calls this area a significant architectural space.

“Below us is the House of Commons chamber, and when Pearson designed this, he really was actually quite creative in how he would maintain a chamber without columns below one large open space,” he says. “What they did they actually created this floor slab, which is hung by these large steel trusses that actually are hidden behind the plaster and those trusses, which are now in these columns, they are large hangers that hold the floor up that allows for the large space below.”

The project also emphasizes Canadian sourcing and sustainability.

Indigenous-owned R. Potvin Construction has been brought into help restore six high heritage rooms, replacing and recycling, when possible, original oak panels.

“We’re very proud to be included as part of this team,” says Richard Potvin. “And, to add to the Indigenous community, and bring it to light, and letting people know we’re here and available to learn and grow is important and meaningful.”

Out front of Centre Block, buried under the great lawn, a new three-storey underground Welcome Centre it’s being constructed and is designed to double visitor capacity to around 700,000 per year.

“When complete, the upper floor will be dedicated to the visiting public. That upper floor will include spaces like a multimedia theatre and exhibition space classrooms for on-site educational programming, in addition to our current programs that include guided tours of the Centre Block building as well as the parliamentary boutique,” says Kali Prostebby, senior manager at the Library of Parliament. ”It will allow Canadians a new and a transformed visitor experience of ways to connect with Parliament, to understand what happens here, the role of parliamentarians and the impact of the decisions made here on the lives.”

The project’s original price tag is around $5 billion. Siavash Mohajer, senior construction director with Public Services and Procurement Canada, says as the rehabilitation project moves into its next phase, and with most designs finalized, the cost will be reassessed in the coming months.

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“We’re proactive to reduce risk so that when this exercise is completed, we’re in a good spot. And we feel like we are,” he says. “We’ve gone through times have been a bit challenging. We’ve had COVID, we’ve had inflation, we’ve had labor shortages, so those give us challenges, but we’re always agile and ready to readapt to those challenges.”

By 2026, the exterior of Centre Block, including the Peace Tower, will be fully covered in scaffolding, which will remain until near the end of the project, which is expected to be completed around 2031.

When finished, the building will look as it always did, but high-tech, modern systems behind the walls, along with universal accessibility, will ensure it lasts for generations.