QUESTION PERIOD — Public Services and Procurement
Rehabilitation of 24 Sussex Drive
May 17, 2022
Honourable senators, my next question is also for Senator Gold. The official residence of the Prime Minister, 24 Sussex Drive, has been vacant since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister in 2015. In 2016 former heritage minister Mélanie Joly indicated a plan to renovate 24 Sussex. A recent answer to my written question on the Senate Order Paper shows that since 2016, Senator Gold, the Trudeau government has spent $767,000 to come up with a plan for what to do with 24 Sussex, and they don’t even have a plan for that. This money was spent on engineering reports, feasibility studies, cost estimates, third-party validations and more.
Leader, how many more taxpayers’ dollars will the NDP‑Liberal government spend before it makes a decision about what to do with 24 Sussex?
Thank you for the question. It is a sad fact that not only the official residence of the Prime Minister but so many of Canada’s buildings here and abroad have suffered from decades and decades of underinvestment and neglect, and as a result, those of us who have travelled internationally and had the privilege of being received in our embassies can attest to the sorry state they find some of them in, and it’s shameful.
The official residence of the Prime Minister is simply unfit for use, and studies need to be done to make sure that the Prime Minister of this country, whoever he or she may be, has a residence that is worthy of the office that they occupy.
In there somewhere, I suppose, you touched on the answer to my question. Of course, over the decades and decades that you are talking about, the majority of those decades we had Liberal governments.
Leader, when Canadian homeowners are considering what to do with their house, they don’t have the luxury of six years and three quarters of a million dollars to spend to perhaps make a decision one day. When taxpayers are footing the bill, however, it’s easy for this government — and we see this time and again — to spend unlimited time and unlimited money to develop a renovation plan.
Leader, these plans have been under development since 2016. How much longer — please, leader, not whose fault is it — does this NDP-Liberal government expect it will take before it comes to a decision on 24 Sussex? Will a decision come this year, next year, or are we going to have to wait for another government?
I’ll make inquiries and report back as quickly as I can.