Rehabilitation of the West Block Building

Due to the nature of the work, West Block must be emptied prior to the full rehabilitation. The West Block houses several core parliamentary functions – Members of Parliament, their employees, committee rooms, the Confederation Room (a ceremonial room), and other support functions, such as the food production facility for Parliament. The strategy of rehabilitating existing crown-owned buildings to meet interim accommodation needs, rather than constructing new facilities provides several benefits: it allows for the restoration and renovation of our heritage Parliament Buildings, allows needed facilities to be developed quickly with less risk of delay; and it creates a pool of interim accommodations that will serve the needs of the West Block rehabilitation, as well as subsequent rehabilitation of the East Block, Centre Block and Confederation Building over 25 years, as required.

The accommodation projects necessary to vacate West Block will include:

• Members of Parliament and specific committee rooms relocated at La Promenade Building (151 Sparks Street). Renovations are currently underway.
• The food production facility relocated permanently off-site.
• The Ceremonial Room 200 permanently relocated to 144 Wellington Street (former Bank of Montreal building). Planning is underway.
• Committee rooms relocated to the Wellington Building. Planning is underway.

In a cascading fashion, these projects create the need for further interim accommodations for staff and facilities displaced from the Wellington and La Promenade buildings. These will be provided in leased accommodations in several buildings in downtown Ottawa. As these accommodation projects proceed, work on the rehabilitation of West Block will advance including the exterior stabilization of southern portions of the building, the interior removal of asbestos, and the design for the interior renovations and infill of the courtyard for use as a temporary home for the House of Commons Chamber and parliamentary functions during the renovation of Centre Block.

Rehabilitating the West Block

The building requires a major rehabilitation due to the deterioration of the building. In order to ensure the preservation of this national heritage building, extensive exterior conservation and interior renovations are required.

Exterior work involves:

• Rehabilitating the masonry and exterior walls
• Dismantling and rebuilding deteriorated areas of masonry
• Repointing of mortar joints
• Replacing windows and copper roof

Interior work involves:

• Removing asbestos
• Upgrading mechanical, electrical and emergency systems
• Renovating the interior

The entire West Block is surrounded by fencing as well as overhead protection at entries where required. Masonry restoration has begun in the least stable areas of the building, the southeast tower and the north towers.