Montreal city hall renovations over budget, over deadline

Construction workers continue the massive renovation and restoration job on Montreal’s city hall.

The project started in 2019 and was supposed to be finished by now. The revised schedule has a new deadline of the end of this year.

The budget has ballooned to $211 million from an initial $66 million when first announced in 2016. At the time, the plan was to bring the century-old heritage building up to code. Since then, the plans have changed to completely overhaul the interior and improve the exterior.

City officials blame the pandemic, supply chain issues and unforeseen construction circumstances for the cost overruns and delays.

“With the pandemic and everything, the schedule has been a bit all upside down,” said Dominique Ollivier, Montreal’s executive committee president and Projet Montréal city councillor for Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie.

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Ollivier has never worked in the original city hall, a building that dates back to 1878 when it was first built. She’s looking forward to moving in when the job is complete.

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“It’s the house of the citizens basically, so it’s going to be nice to have people coming back to city hall,” she said.

All elected officials and city employees have been working in an adjacent building while work progresses.

Opposition councillors understand there are reasons behind the delays and costly expenses but they say the budget increasing by more than three times the initial announcement is unacceptable.

“It’s been two years that we’re still waiting to move in. Is it going to be next year? Are there going to be more delays? We don’t know,” said Mary Deros, an opposition councillor who has been working in the original city hall since 1998.

Still, she can’t wait until it’s finished.

“It’s a beautiful heritage building, (I’m) looking forward to moving in,” Deros said.

Montreal’s opposition leader insists it shouldn’t take this long or cost so much.

“So far, I can’t tell if it’s going to end up with this amount or it’s going to really go over this amount,” Aref Salem told Global News.

Salem puts the blame squarely on Mayor Valérie Plante and her party, Projet Montréal.

”They’re not managing the public money the way they should be managing it,” he said.

Upon completion,  the city’s largest and oldest democratic institution is supposed to be fully equipped with modern amenities while maintaining its historic charm.

Some city employees have had a sneak peek at the work inside and are enthusiastic to move back in.

”I want to go back there. It seems to be very nice inside,” Christelle Lemonnie, a city employee told Global News.

The move-in date is now scheduled for early next year.