Prime Minister Mark Carney said the national fundraising campaign for the refurbishment of the prime minister’s official residence will place a limit on donations and make the list of donors public to ensure transparency in the project.
Carney said the Rideau Hall Foundation, which is running the fundraising campaign, will make a final decision on donation limits, but his “thinking is the limit would be 10 per cent of the overall amount raised or a specific cap.”
The donations will only be accepted if they are from individual Canadian citizens, permanent residents or philanthropic organizations. Corporations will not be allowed to participate.
“The way the process is designed is we have the Rideau Hall Foundation overseeing the fundraising [with] no influence at all on the decisions,” Carney said.
On Friday, Carney outlined the government’s plan to restore the home at 24 Sussex Drive, which has fallen into disrepair and become uninhabitable after years of neglect.
WATCH | Carney says donor list will be public:
24 Sussex Drive restoration donor list will be public, Carney says
Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed Friday the project to restore the prime minister’s official residence will include a fundraising campaign, saying the donor list will be published and ‘there will be a limit’ on the amount donors can contribute.
The prime minister did not provide a cost estimate for the refurbishment of the property, saying he will let the design teams first provide specifications for the official residence, with costs following on from that.
“I don’t want to be too forward on what the budget is for this,” Carney said. “In many respects that’s part of the competition … I don’t want to be saying you should put the dining room on the second floor.”
The design and build competition announced Friday to modernize 24 Sussex will be open to eligible Canadian design firms.
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The competition itself will be overseen by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, which will put together an independent jury of experts in architecture, heritage conservation and design.
The jury’s members are: Carol Bélanger, Nicolas Demers-Stoddart, Omar Gandhi, Mamie Griffith, Patricia Kell and Brigitte Shim. It will be chaired by Moshe Safdie.
The winning proposal will be announced by Canada Day 2027.
A symbol of Canadian democracy
Carney noted that while the official residence is still standing, it’s been gutted to the studs and has been sitting vacant for more than a decade.
The design-and-build competition, Carney said Friday, will restore 24 Sussex so it can once again serve as “a secure, accessible and sustainable official residence and a working venue for Canada’s future prime ministers.”
“A nation is more than the people who live in it today. It includes everyone who came before us, and everyone who will come after,” Carney said.
The prime minister said 24 Sussex, which was built in 1868, is a symbol of Canada’s democracy and an important part of its history, having played host to Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Winston Churchill and U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
WATCH | Carney announces national design competition:
Carney announces national design competition to restore 24 Sussex Drive
Canadian firms will have a chance to put forward bids to design and restore the prime minister’s official residence, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday, with the winning proposal to be announced by July 1, 2027. Carney said the goal is to have 24 Sussex Drive reflect ‘the very best’ of Canada.
“Our institutions are how we carry forward what we were given, and how we pass it on, at least intact, ideally improved, to those who follow,” he said. “24 Sussex Drive is one of these institutions. And we will not let it crumble. We will set it right.”
Asked why he decided to seek donations rather than use tax revenues, Carney said his government has a lot of priorities, all of which are competing for government funding.
The prime minister said those priorities include infrastructure, national defence, sovereignty in the Arctic, health care, the arts and charitable endeavors at home and abroad.
When weighing those responsibilities, Carney said it was difficult to ignore how many private Canadians had reached out asking if they could financially support 24 Sussex Drive’s refurbishment.
“The structure here is a response to incoming interest in supporting this project,” he said.
Carney thanked former prime ministers Stephen Harper and Jean Chrétien’s advocacy for the renovation. He also thanked former prime ministers Joe Clark, Kim Campbell, Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau, who, together with Brian Mulroney’s widow, Mila Mulroney, have publicly backed the project.
A home for other prime ministers, Carney says
Canadian prime ministers and their families have lived at Rideau Cottage, a former residence of the secretary to the Governor General, located on the grounds of Rideau Hall.
By the time Carney came into office the 24 Sussex had been gutted to remove mould, asbestos and rodents, leaving him little choice but to move into the cottage.
Carney said Friday that while the cottage works as a place for a family to live, and he is grateful for the security provided by the RCMP, he wants a residence at 24 Sussex restored for future prime ministers.
“Rideau Cottage is not the long-term solution. It is where I will live as prime minister. Just to be clear, this is for future prime ministers and really for Canadians in restoring one of our institutions,” Carney said.