Prime Minister Carney launches national competition to restore 24 Sussex Drive
Prime Minister Mark Carney moved Friday to break a long political stalemate over the official prime minister's residence, announcing an independent national design-and-build competition to rehabilitate the long-vacant house at 24 Sussex Drive.
The building has sat empty since Stephen Harper left office in 2015. Successive governments have avoided major repairs, leaving the National Capital Commission (NCC) to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on basic upkeep of a property widely described as being in critical condition, with millions of dollars being spent on removing extensive asbestos, mould, and rodent infestations.
Carney's plan calls for an open competition limited to eligible Canadian firms. The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada will help shape the process and assemble an independent jury of architects, heritage experts, and designers. The winning proposal is expected to be named by Canada Day 2027.
“For decades, 24 Sussex has stood at the centre of Canada's national life,” Carney said in a press confrence Friday. “It has served prime ministers through moments of challenge and change, and it deserves to be brought into a new era. Our government's approach is clear: restore it responsibly, manage costs carefully, and ensure taxpayers get value for money. And we will make sure this is a Canadian project.”
The announcement comes after years in which the residence became a symbol of political hesitation. During the 2019 federal election, the decaying state of 24 Sussex turned into a minor but pointed campaign issue. Conservatives attacked the Trudeau Liberals for allowing the property to deteriorate, with Andrew Scheer's team calling the costs “a failure that Justin Trudeau has been unable to fix.”
Yet Scheer's camp infamously declined to say whether he would live there if elected, and previous Conservative governments had also limited spending to emergency repairs only.
The NCC has poured significant money into the building with little visible return. Between 2018 and 2023 alone, more than $680,000 went toward items such as elevator maintenance, pest control, janitorial services, and minor roof work on a house no prime minister has occupied in over a decade. A 2021 assessment put the cost of a full rehabilitation at roughly $36.6 million; a figure that has almost certainly risen since.
Rather than committing new federal money upfront or directing the NCC to proceed with a predetermined plan, Carney's approach spreads both the creative and financial burden. The government is encouraging a non-partisan fundraising campaign, reportedly to be led by the Rideau Hall Foundation, to cover much or all of the eventual cost. That structure allows the prime minister to claim action on a long-standing embarrassment while insulating his government from direct responsibility for the final bill or design choices.
“Canadians rightly expect their leaders to take decisions where the benefits may only be realized long after they are in office,” Carney said. “Good stewardship demands it, Canadians rightly expect it, and the future of our institutions depends on us leaving them better than we found them. We will restore 24 Sussex Drive to a standard worthy of the country it serves.”
The competition model is politically low-risk. It emphasizes Canadian design excellence and value for taxpayers, while the long timeline and private fundraising element mean any heavy spending or controversial choices will land on someone else's watch. Previous attempts to resolve the file—whether under Harper's limited maintenance approach or Trudeau's repeated deferrals to the NCC—produced little more than mounting maintenance invoices and growing public frustration.
Heritage groups and architects have long called for a clear decision on the future of the 19th-century house. Carney's announcement finally sets a process in motion, but it also makes clear that the next concrete steps will be taken by others: the jury, the competing firms, and private donors. After more than a decade of political avoidance, the prime minister has chosen a careful, arm's-length route to finally address one of Ottawa's most visible unfinished files.
