A glimpse into the most complex heritage restoration work in Canada

The multi-billion dollar restoration and expansion of Canada's main Parliament Building is completing its first phase.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">On Canada Day, an estimated 100,000 people, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, took to a concert stage outside the Canadian War Museum for a day of musical performances, occasional speeches and, finally, fireworks.

ImageA large excavation in front of the Parliament of Canada will create a new underground entrance for visitors.Credit...Ian Austen/The New York Times

For the second year in a row, the celebration did not take place on Parliament Hill. It will not take place there, in the traditional gothic revival setting of the Parliament Buildings, for many years.

The Main Center Block, which Home to both the Senate and House of Commons chambers are in the midst of a 10+ year construction project that will restore decades of deterioration, drastically reduce its carbon footprint and bring it up to current survival standards by case of fire and earthquake. The project will also update the building's electrical, plumbing, heating and communications systems, some of which have not changed since it opened in 1927.

It is budgeted upwards by C$5 billion, of which approximately C$600 million has been spent. But the project avoided the political acrimony that has plagued another historic Canadian government building: 24 Sussex Drive, the prime minister's currently abandoned official residence. None of the recent prime ministers have wanted to commit to spending the tens of millions of dollars it would take to make the stone house habitable again, fearing a political backlash by making it look like they were spending money. money for themselves.

The House of Commons and the Senate turned off the lights and moved their chambers and committee rooms to temporary locations in 2019. Rob Wright is Assistant Deputy Minister in the Department of Public Works and...