
Future home of country’s MPs nears completion with massive renovations
OTTAWA — The future workplace for the country’s MPs has been shrouded from view for months as a small army toils to prepare a temporary home for the House of Commons.
But media got a sneak peek Thursday at the complex renovation process for Parliament’s West Block, which will house the Commons when the Centre Block is closed for its own makeover in 2018
Unlike a proposed expansion of the nearby Chateau Laurier hotel, which has drawn impassioned criticism online, the parliamentary revamp is largely in line with the Hill’s iconic imagery.
Dubbed by Public Works Canada as the “most complex rehabilitation project ever on Parliament Hill,” the restoration is nearing its completion phase, although it’s difficult to imagine the work being finished in 2017, given the many bare concrete and brick interior walls and the bare steel frames that will support a glass dome over the new Commons chamber.