Hundreds of people across Canada have started donating to a crowdfunding campaign to come up with $50 million to restore Canada’s most famous fixer-upper: 24 Sussex Drive.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced long-awaited plans on Friday to restore the gutted official residence, including fundraising as much money as possible to help pay the bill.
But Carney wouldn’t say how big that bill could be.
Teresa Marques, the president and CEO of the Rideau Hall Foundation which is leading the national fundraising effort, said on Monday they set a goal of $50 million after talks with the government about the size and scope of the project and past estimates.
“This is really meant to be a bit of a moonshot,” Marques told CBC’s Ottawa Morning. “Our hope is that we are able to cover all or most of the costs of this project.”
She said any leftover funds would “be repurposed into the project itself going forward.”
Over the weekend more than 210 people donated just over $54,000 via the Rideau Hall Foundation’s website. The charity said the average donation was more than $250, and that it’s capping donations at $5 million per person.
It said the campaign will launch more formally later this summer, but people can start donating now.
The estimated cost to restore 24 Sussex has been shrouded in secrecy for years. The RCMP and National Capital Commission have come up with estimates, but redacted all the dollar amounts in documents recently released to CBC News under the Access to Information Act.
Carney said he’s seen various estimates for options for the prime minister’s official residence, but wouldn’t reveal what they say or what the budget is to restore 24 Sussex.
“I don’t want to be too forward on what the budget is for this because in many respects that’s part of the competition,” he said.
WATCH | More about the restoration:
Carney’s plan for 24 Sussex Drive
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his plan to restore 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of the prime minister that has been left vacant and in need of repairs for years. The plan includes a nationwide call for designers as well as a crowdfunding campaign to lessen the impact on public funds.
The design competition open to Canadian companies and overseen by experts, he said, will include coming up with a budget. But he said the government will cover security costs.
“We’ve interrogated those security costs to make sure that they’re right and made some progress there,” Carney said.
Asked if Carney’s comment meant the government was able to reduce security costs, Public Services and Procurement Canada said security experts have determined “the appropriate security features can be integrated at 24 Sussex to secure it,” but called it “premature” to come up with a cost estimate.
A few weeks ago, the RCMP blacked out those security costs when it released a briefing note to CBC News written for Commissioner Michael Duheme about its site recommendations.
“In 2023, the RCMP determined the optimal security posture for each site and prepared indicative costing to accompany the proposals, based on the most current space requirements available in the absence of a finalized design,” the December briefing note told Duheme.
The National Capital Commission, which manages the official residence, also heavily redacted recent documents about the breakdown of costs to restore 24 Sussex.
A document called “general costing information” labelled “advice for minister” said the commission hired Toronto firm Turner & Townsend in March 2023 to provide a cost analysis.
Redacted financial details
The unredacted portion of the document said restoring 24 Sussex required almost 500 square metres for the space where the prime minister and their family would live, the document said. That space must include eight bedrooms, a living room, kitchenette, dining area with 15 seats around the table and an office for the prime minister.
The document also said there needed to be more than 800 square metres for government space. That area needed to include a dining room with a table that could seat 30 people, a kitchen and outdoor event area.
WATCH | Design competition launched to restore 24 Sussex:
Carney launches design competition to ‘rehabilitate’ 24 Sussex Drive
Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a national design-and-build competition to restore the prime minister’s official residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa, which has become uninhabitable after years of neglect.
The commission said disclosing the amounts could hurt the financial interests of Canada or “result in an undue benefit to a person.” It also evoked a section of the access to information law that says the government can refuse to disclose material that contains advice or recommendations.
The Rideau Hall Foundation’s fundraising goal is the only hint so far at what the government thinks the project could cost.
Marques said she was “floored” by how much Canadians have already donated.
“I think for a lot of Canadians, they do feel that it is a symbol of pride in the country, that it’s a symbol of our sovereignty and that it’s a symbol of our identity,” Marques said.
“I’m not sure that this kind of campaign, or this kind of effort, would have the broad-scale support necessarily five years ago, three years ago, 10 years ago. But we’re in a different time now.”
The prime minister’s official residence has been sitting vacant for more than a decade. Past prime ministers didn’t want to take the political risk to spend the money to fix it up.
Cameras were allowed into 24 Sussex on Friday for the first time in years. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
The government allowed media cameras inside the home on Friday for the first time in years to capture rooms that once hosted royals and world leaders stripped down to the studs with rodent traps and asbestos warning signs.
Opposition House leader MP Andrew Scheer was skeptical about the idea to crowdfund the money to restore 24 Sussex.
“Every time the liberals come up with a scheme or a program or a proposal, they find ways to make their friends rich at the expense of Canadians,” Scheer said on Friday.
“We are always concerned when Liberals do things because they have shown themselves to put themselves in conflicts of interest.”
Carney said corporations would be banned from donating, donors’ names would be made public and donation limits would be in place.
The foundation promised to share “more information, including names of donors, on a financial milestone basis.”
Canadians, permanent residents and charitable foundations can donate, and the donation is tax deductible. Anonymous donations aren’t allowed and donors must attest to being a Canadian or permanent resident, it said.
