Canadians to learn fate of 24 Sussex on Friday, Carney says
Prime minister's official residence has sat vacant since 2015
Ashley Burke · CBC News
Posted: Jun 25, 2026 1:04 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he'll announce on Friday what will happen to 24 Sussex Drive — the heritage building sitting vacant for almost a decade after his predecessors allowed it to deteriorate and become uninhabitable.
CBC News asked Carney at a news conference on Thursday about what he envisions for the prime minister's official residence.
"I'll have a press conference tomorrow to answer that," Carney said.
Reporters in the room seemed surprised by the announcement, which led him to joke that "there's something new every day." He wouldn't say what his plan is.
"There's one question I'm not going to answer today which is 24 Sussex," he said.
Carney made the comment a day after CBC News reported his long-awaited decision was expected in the coming weeks, following months of meetings about what to do with one of Canada's most famous addresses.
Successive prime ministers haven't wanted to take the political risk to spend the tens of millions of dollars needed to renovate the 32-room home. It was gutted in recent years to strip out mould, asbestos and rodents.
In April, Carney revealed he wants to choose an option that allows future prime ministers to call 24 Sussex home.
"You're not going to see me at 24 Sussex, but I would like to see my successors at 24 Sussex in some way, shape or form," Carney said in an interview in April with CBC's The National.
"I think it's a responsibility to hand off things better than you found them. And certainly the current state of 24 Sussex couldn't be any worse. It's an embarrassment."
Tobi Nussbaum, the CEO of the National Capital Commission (NCC) which manages 24 Sussex Drive, said on Tuesday the government has been seized with deciding what to do about the property for some time.
The commission's plan to make the capital more beautiful over the next two decades was approved by the board this week. The plan calls preserving and enhancing 24 Sussex a "key objective."
The NCC recommends to "rehabilitate and renew the property, a classified federal heritage building, in a way that reflects its role as the official residence of the prime minister of Canada."
Officials in 2025 estimated the price tag to restore 24 Sussex could range from tens of millions of dollars to more than $100 million.
The government has long faced calls to take future decisions about the official residence out of political hands to prevent history from repeating itself.
In one of his final acts as prime minister, Justin Trudeau called for the creation of an advisory panel of former prime ministers to make recommendations about the cost, security requirements and location of the residence.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-announcing-fate-24-sussex-drive-9.7248816
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