Taxpayers spent $41 million trying to repair the fire-damaged Louis St. Laurent building in Gatineau but the federal government will now abandon the structure and leave as many as 1,800 Defence department employees scattered in other locations across the national capital region. Public Services and Procurement Canada says it has stopped work on the building, which was damaged by a fire on April 21, 2016. “To date, PSPC has spent $41 million to stabilize the structure of the building and start the demolition and decontamination,” department spokeswoman Michèle LaRose noted in an email. The fire started on the sixth floor of the Louis St. Laurent building, and part of the roof caved in as a result of the blaze. Work on the fifth and sixth floors of the building alone has cost almost $14 million, according to the documents obtained by Postmedia.

Source: National Post March 05, 2019 21:22 UTC