The cost of remediating the building, as well as upgrading its functionality and security, was estimated at about 38 million Canadian dollars eight years ago, a figure most everyone agrees has since risen.
Since Mr. Trudeau moved into Rideau Cottage in 2015, debate has raged about the fate of 24 Sussex Drive. In 2024, former prime ministers and onetime bitter political rivals, Jean Chrétien, a Liberal, and Stephen Harper, a Conservative, volunteered to lead a private fund-raising effort to renovate it. Mr. Trudeau’s office turned them down. On Friday, however, Mr. Carney thanked his two predecessors for proposing the concept.
Kim Campbell, who was prime minister for four months in 1993, was among the most prominent supporters of razing the house, arguing that a new residence could showcase Canadian architecture and design.
Another camp proposed converting 24 Sussex Drive into a reception and conference center and building a new official residence elsewhere, ideally somewhere more secure. Unlike 10 Downing Street in London, Sussex Drive is a busy commuter route that cannot be closed to the public.
Keeping Mr. Carney in Rideau Cottage appears to be a nonstarter. Mary Simon, who recently ended her tenure as governor general, said that it was inappropriate for the prime minister to live on an estate reserved for the monarch’s representative. More practically, because the cottage has a household kitchen that doesn’t meet workplace safety standards, Mr. Carney’s meals are cooked off site and driven in.
“This kind of endless shilly shallying has been emblematic of the inability, generically, of governments to come to ground on issues, even the most minor ones,” said Peter Donolo, who served as Mr. Chrétien’s communications director. “Why does the prime minister need to worry about stuff like this? All he or she ought to do is say: You got a plan for fixing up the place? Good, go for it.”
