The residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa in October, 2015.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
If one were looking for a symbol of the failures of Canadian public policy over the last decade, there is no better candidate to be found than the husk of 24 Sussex Drive. Once grand, the residence of nine prime ministers (but not the current one or his predecessor) is a wreck, at one point riddled with asbestos, lead, mold and, for good measure, rat corpses and feces.
It was a humiliating fate for a building entwined with Canada’s history: construction on 24 Sussex began on the same year as Confederation, paid for by the profits from the lumber industry, an early foundation of this country’s economy. From 1949 onward, it was the official residence of Canadian prime ministers. Until 2015, that is.
Justin Trudeau declined to move in when he was first elected prime minister in 2015, an eminently reasonable decision given the advanced state of disrepair of 24 Sussex.
Instead, he moved in to Rideau Cottage on the grounds of Rideau Hall. The two-storey building is a federal heritage building, but it is, generously, unprepossessing. It was designed to provide housing for the Secretary of the Governor General, not the leader of a G7 nation.
Plan in the works for 24 Sussex Drive, Carney says
Mr. Trudeau’s move to the cottage was necessary in the moment. But then little was done about 24 Sussex over the next decade, beyond some limited remediation work. At least the asbestos and rodent corpses are gone.
The politics of selling an expensive renovation were evidently too tough. The parallels with far bigger problems facing Canada are striking: rather than challenge Canadians to look beyond the mundane present, Mr. Trudeau chose the easy downward stroll of decline.
To be fair to Mr. Trudeau, his decade of neglect followed years of can-kicking by previous prime ministers, who also declined to spend any political capital on ensuring that the official residence was up to snuff.
And so it falls to Prime Minister Mark Carney, who said last week his government will shortly unveil a plan for 24 Sussex. “The current state of 24 Sussex couldn’t be any worse. It’s an embarrassment,” Mr. Carney said in an interview with CBC last month. Blunt, but accurate.
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In that interview, Mr. Carney said he would like to see “my successors at 24 Sussex in some way, shape or form,” although he would not be taking up residence himself. (More on that in a moment.)
Mr. Carney is right to promise action; it will be even better to take action. At a guess, the political risks are overblown. So long as the government ensures that the National Capital Commission is transparent about the renovation process, it’s hard to imagine Canadians being that upset over the restoration of a national symbol. It could be a chance to engage Canadians’ imagination.
This space is no fan of wasteful spending, but the rehabilitation of 24 Sussex would be anything but. A country needs symbols, the stitching that holds together a national consciousness. National pride is no time for false economies.
So, what should be done? In his last week as prime minister, Mr. Trudeau directed that an advisory group be set up to provide recommendations, taking location, function, cost and security requirements into consideration. That group was to report by January, 2026, but the Carney government has never made it clear whether the effort got off the ground.
No matter; the advisory group was really just one more kick of the can down the road. Mr. Carney need not name a commission, council, conclave or any other group. A diagnosis of the problem has not been lacking. Political will has. (That pattern might seem sadly familiar.)
The options are equally clear: build a residence somewhere else, upgrade Rideau Cottage or (extensively) renovate and retrofit 24 Sussex. Mr. Carney hasn’t spelled out his thinking, but his comments to the CBC heavily hint that it’s the third option that is on the table.
That’s as it should be. The residence at 24 Sussex is not just architecture. It’s part of Canada’s history.
Mr. Carney is prematurely writing himself out of that history. Unless he is planning to be a one-term-and-done prime minister, there’s no reason why he should not take up residence in a restored 24 Sussex, whenever it is ready.
The 80th anniversary of 24 Sussex as a prime ministerial residence is just three years away. Mr. Carney should aim to throw a birthday party, even if a bit belated, for Canadians at his – our – new digs.