Transportation and Works
February 20, 2013
Opposition Wrong on Confederation Building Upgrade
The Minister of Transportation and Works today took exception to information being circulated by the Official Opposition that indicates planning for upgrades to the Confederation Building, East Block electrical and mechanical systems are a three to four year extensive renovation project to the Premier’s Office.
“The Official Opposition would have you believe that we are just renovating office space to exclusively accommodate the Premier’s Office,” said the Honourable Paul Davis, Minister of Transportation and Works. “Nothing could be further from the truth; this building is more than 50 years old, with the service life of the mechanical and electrical systems on all floors requiring significant upgrades. Unlike the previous Liberal administration in the 1990s, we are not undertaking cosmetic renovations exclusive to the Premier’s Office at the expense of needed repairs.”
Any work being undertaken to the Premier’s Office is a result of the larger project to upgrade 50-year old masonry and windows, and the electrical and mechanical systems of the building. As the ongoing exterior work extends to the tower of the building, additional work involving upgrades to the electrical and mechanical systems inside the building will be undertaken. It will be done on a floor by floor basis to minimize interruptions to government business, and will involve all floors of the building. All employees will be required to move while electrical and mechanical work is underway on their respective floor. The east wing of the fourth floor will be used as temporary space to accommodate offices while these upgrades are being done.
To prepare for this first phase of the project, offices on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors – the Premier’s Office, Cabinet Secretariat and the Communications Branch – will move to the fourth floor in April. The current occupants of the fourth floor are being relocated to existing Government of Newfoundland and Labrador office space. As work is completed in a given area, people on these three floors will return to their regular work space. This phase is anticipated to be completed by the summer of 2014.
In 2014, the department will undertake additional planning to identify and schedule this work for the remaining floors in the building.
A public tender will be called and awarded by late May 2013 with these upgrades beginning in late spring and or early summer.
“This work is driven by the need to modernize an aging building and keep it functioning well into the future, and not as the Official Opposition states, to accommodate the Premier’s Office,” said Minister Davis. "To suggest that this work is for cosmetic reasons is both incorrect and misleading.”
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Media contact:
Ed Moriarity
Director of Communications
Department of Transportation and Works
709-729-3015, 699-5668
edmoriarity@gov.nl.ca
2013 02 20 5:30 p.m.