New Finance Canada building named after Jim Flaherty
Jason Fekete, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: October 15, 2014, Last Updated: October 15, 2014 5:18 PM EDT
Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially announced Wednesday the new Finance Canada building in downtown Ottawa has been named after Jim Flaherty, the late former Conservative finance minister.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced the naming of the James Michael Flaherty Building at 90 Elgin Street in a news release, following a private ceremony with Harper, Flaherty’s widow Christine Elliott and her sons John, Galen and Quinn.
A commemorative plaque, bearing Flaherty’s name, was unveiled by Harper and Elliott in the private ceremony. It will later be affixed to the wall in the lobby, the PMO said.
“It is a fitting tribute to Jim Flaherty’s contribution to Canada to name the new federal finance building in Ottawa in his honour. Jim will be remembered as one of the best ministers of finance in the history of Canada,” Harper said in the news release.
“He dedicated the last years of his life to one of his greatest passions: ensuring the economic well-being of Canadians. I know that the federal government employees working in the new James Michael Flaherty Building will remember with fondness and respect the remarkable human being he was and all that he accomplished for Canada.”
Flaherty, who served eight years as Harper’s finance minister, died suddenly in April at the age of 64, less than a month after he resigned from cabinet to prepare for a return to the private sector.
Approximately 1,200 people from the Department of Finance have already been relocated to the new building on Elgin Street over the past few weeks, occupying floors nine to 17, after vacating the L’Esplanade Laurier East Tower.
The new 17-floor glass-façade building is across the street from the National Arts Centre and a few blocks from Parliament Hill.
Treasury Board Secretariat employees will also move into the building by May 2015. The entire building will accommodate about 2,600 federal employees.
A number of federal government buildings in Ottawa have been named after past prime ministers and cabinet members, including at least one other former minister of finance.
Harper’s government has already renamed the building housing International Trade offices (old Ottawa City Hall) at 111 Sussex Drive after former Conservative prime minister John G. Diefenbaker.
Also, the government has named the former Bank of Montreal building at 144 Wellington Street the John A. Macdonald Building in honour of Canada’s first prime minister.
The headquarters for Canada’s electronic spy organization, Communications Security Establishment Canada, are currently housed in the Sir Leonard Tilley Building on Heron Road. (CSEC is preparing to move into a new building costing more than $1 billion).
Tilley was a Father of Confederation and former Conservative finance minister in the Macdonald government.
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