Newly renovated West Block turned over as House of Commons prepares to move
OTTAWA — The newly renovated West Block of Parliament was formally turned over to the speaker of the House of Commons Thursday as Geoff Regan accepted a large, sculpted copper key on behalf of MPs.
“If this is the key, I want to see the size of the lock,” Regan quipped as he was handed the symbolic lock-turner by Public Services Minister Carla Qualtrough at a ceremony just outside the temporary Commons chamber the building now holds.
While a few finishing touches remain, including installing the desks where MPs will debate legislation over at least the next decade, the renovations to the stately 19th-century building are all but complete.
Members of Parliament are set to move out of the Centre Block, which will undergo its own massive upgrade, over their Christmas holiday break and begin deliberating government business in the transformed West Block once they return on Jan. 28.