More than one in four area federal buildings in poor or critical condition, government report says
"Risk of building and building systems failure is high."
Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: January 20, 2020
More than a quarter of all federally owned, leased or licensed buildings in the Ottawa-Gatineau area, including many landmark downtown buildings, are in critical or poor condition, according to the government’s own assessment.
Of 2,197 National Capital Region buildings listed in the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada’s Directory of Federal Real Property, 187 are in critical condition and 409 are in poor shape, accounting for 27 per cent of the total. Six-hundred and ninety (31 per cent) are listed in good condition, while 712 (32 per cent) are listed as fair. An additional 199 (nine per cent), all of them licensed or leased, are unrated or listed as “unknown.”
All of the buildings listed as critical or poor are Crown-owned, pushing the portion of critical and poor buildings to 30 per cent of all federally owned buildings in the National Capital Region.
This is a marked increase from just three years ago, when the Ottawa Business Journal reported that 18 per cent of federally owned buildings in Ottawa were in poor or critical shape.
Among those currently listed as critical are the Sir Charles Tupper Building on Riverside Drive; the Taxation Data Centre on Heron Road, Place de Portage’s Phase IV in Gatineau, the National Printing Bureau on boulevard Sacré-Coeur in Gatineau and the Supreme Court building on Wellington Street.
According to the Treasury Board Secretariat, a structure is rated critical when “(operations and maintenance) costs are high, and frequent emergency maintenance and repair are required. Risk of building and building systems failure is high.” The classification is similar, it adds, to a Facility Condition Index classification greater than 30 per cent, meaning if would take an investment of 30 per cent or more of the building’s value to bring it up to current standards.
Chris Aylward, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, says the government must do more to address the situation. “It’s very concerning to us because the health and safety of our members are being put at risk.
“One of the things that (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau made a priority was infrastructure investment, and federal buildings have deteriorated considerably under this prime minister. We need the prime minister to deliver on (his) commitment.”
According to the Treasury Board Secretariat, there were 121,230 federal employees working in the National Capital Region as of March 2019.
The average age of the area buildings listed as critical is about 73 years, and although many are old barns, silos and other farm buildings, others are among Ottawa’s most historic office and retail buildings. Great swaths of the downtown core, particularly on Wellington and Sparks streets, fall into this category.
Apart from the Supreme Court, other Wellington Street properties in critical condition include the National Press Building and the old U.S. embassy and its annex. Parliament’s Centre Block, currently undergoing renovations, is also listed as critical.
Sparks Street buildings in critical condition include the Dover-Brouse-Slater Building, the Booth Building, the Hope-Chambers building, the Blackburn Building, St. Andrew’s Tower, the House of Norcano Building, the Saxe (Canada Life) Building, the Nelms Building, the Birks Building, the Bate Building, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the Fisher Building and the Canada’s Four Corners Building.
The oldest building on the critical list is a 190-year-old shed on Russell Road. The oldest ones in downtown Ottawa are the prime minister’s residence at 24 Sussex Dr. and the Nelms Building on Sparks Street, at 153 and 150 years respectively.
Of the 6.1 million square metres of floor space in federally owned, leased or licensed buildings in the National Capital Region, 3.8 million sq.m, or more than 60 per cent, fall under the purview of Public Services and Procurement Canada. Ninety-two of their buildings, accounting for 1.1 million sq.m of floor space, are listed in critical or poor condition. A further 163 PSPC buildings, accounting for almost 1.5 million sq.m and including such large edifices as Place de Ville C and the Thomas D’Arcy McGee buildings, both on Sparks Street, and Place Vincent Massey and Place de la Cité, both in Gatineau, are leased or licensed, and are listed either as in “unknown” condition or simply undesignated.
Of the 139 Crown-owned buildings listed as being under PSPC’s umbrella, 47 are in critical condition, and 45 others are in poor shape. PSPC would not make anyone available for an interview, but in an email Friday it claimed to be “custodian of approximately 110 crown-owned buildings in the National Capital Region” of which 11 it said are in critical condition and 15 in poor condition.
Furthermore, it added, “more than $1 billion is being invested in the rehabilitation of the Supreme Court of Canada and West Memorial Buildings, both classified as heritage assets.
“Through the Parliamentary Precinct’s Long Term Vision and Plan (LTVP), PSPC is restoring and modernizing buildings within the Parliamentary Precinct. Over the last few years, PSPC has successfully completed numerous rehabilitation and construction projects, such as the Library of Parliament (2006), the Sir. John A. Macdonald Building (2015), the Wellington Building (2016), the West Block (2018), the Senate of Canada Building (2018) and Phase I of the Visitor Welcome Centre (2018), which is the first new building to be constructed on Parliament Hill in over 100 years. The work being undertaken is also being recognized for being of high quality and for having a positive impact on Canada’s capital.”
Additionally, its website indicated that the Confederation Building and former U.S. embassy on Wellington have funding earmarked for upgrades.
Beyond that, however, PSPC officials would not say which specific buildings were priorities to rehabilitate, or whether there were plans to demolish or sell others.
David Flemming, chair of the Heritage Ottawa Advisory Committee, is quick to point out that the federal government does an excellent job when it does upgrade its properties, hiring top architects and winning numerous awards for design excellence, sustainability and heritage conservation. Flemming points to Diamond Schmitt Architects and Barry Padolsky Associates Inc. Architects as examples, each winning Ottawa Urban Design Awards for their restorations of the Senate of Canada Building and Victoria Memorial Museum, respectively.
Additionally, Flemming says, the feds have increasingly welcomed input from such organizations as Heritage Ottawa and, as is the case with the Booth Street complex that is currently being developed privately, now often includes conditions on building sales that require developers to include historical buildings in their plans, rather than simply raze them.
“We’ve come a long way in the last 10 or 15 years, but there’s more to do,” says Flemming. “I can sympathize that there’s only a certain amount of money in the budget, but I think it’s short-sighted to delay a lot of these things because if it is a question of finances it’s going to cost a lot more the longer you delay.
“But they’re doing a good job,” he adds, “and I’m not going to be critical of them for what they’re not doing, because I think it’s balanced off by the fact that when they do get around to doing things, they do it fairly well.”
That said, the situation, despite recent renovations to buildings in and around the Parliamentary Precinct, only seems to be getting worse. PSAC boss Aylward notes that the percentage of buildings in the poor and critical categories has ballooned significantly in recent years. He specifically cited The Sir Charles Tupper Building, Canada Revenue Agency’s Tax Data Centre at 875 Heron Rd., Place du Portage and much of Tunney’s Pasture as worrying. All four sites are maintained by PSPC.
“You have buildings literally falling apart, and when you look at the age of HVAC systems and what’s going through them, it’s a serious concern. The Tax Data Centre has been under scrutiny for at least 20 years because of continuous bad smells coming from the floor drains in the basement.
“It’s an issue that’s being ignored,” he adds. “When you get infestations of bed bugs in buildings, obviously something is not being done right.”
Nine area federal buildings were discovered last fall to have bed bugs.
In its emailed response, PSPC noted that “The Government of Canada takes the health and safety of its buildings’ occupants and visitors very seriously. Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) regularly assesses its buildings to protect the integrity of its assets and addresses health and safety concerns immediately when they come to light.”
Meanwhile, almost two dozen buildings at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Fallowfield Road complex are in critical shape, as are many at the Central Experimental Farm and Greenbelt Research Farm.
Others in critical condition include the 10,500-sq.m Mulligan Building at 1800 Walkley Rd, the 13,000-sq.m Canadian Museum of Nature Curatorial Centre at 1770 Pink Rd. in Gatineau, a 10,500-sq.m Canada Post building on Brookfield Road; the old RCMP building on the Vanier Parkway, various National Research Council buildings on Montreal Road; and Camp Fortune facilities in Chelsea.
Building listed in poor condition include almost all of the National Defence headquarters’ Carling Campus, at Moodie Drive, and its Shirley’s Bay complex just west of there; more than 30 NRC buildings on Montreal Road; a further handful of buildings at Rideau Hall, including the main residence and greenhouse, the Lester B. Pearson Building on Sussex Drive, home to Global Affairs Canada; the governor general’s residence at Rideau Hall; the Taxation Headquarters on Heron Road, Health Canada’s Sir Frederick G. Banting Research Centre and its Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, both at Tunney’s Pasture, and the Canada Post towers at Riverside and Heron Roads.
According to the Treasury Board Secretariat, a designation of poor indicates that “Some or all asset systems are compromised or show serious signs of deterioration. Risk of some systems failure is likely, with high O&M costs and unplanned maintenance and repairs. This classification is generally comparable to a FCI between 11 to 30 per cent.”
Wellington Street edifices rated as poor include the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council (formerly the Langevin Block), East Block, West Memorial Building, Victoria Building, Confederation Building and the Justice Building.
Sparks Street buildings in poor shape include the O’Brien Building and the former post office at the corner of Elgin Street, while the Jackson Building on Bank Street is also rated poor.
Other sizable buildings rated poor include the Connaught Building on MacKenzie Avenue, the former CBC building on Bronson Avenue, and three buildings at Tunney’s Pasture: Personnel Records Centre #18, Health Protection Building #7 and Finance Building #2. Lasalle Academy, on Sussex Drive, also received a poor rating, as did much of Place du Portage in Gatineau.
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