National Defence HQ (Carling) | 60 Moodie Drive [former Nortel campus]

[rocketphish]

DND move to Nortel campus delayed till new year

David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: December 7, 2016 | Last Updated: December 7, 2016 5:43 PM EST

The first major move of Defence department employees to the former Nortel campus in west end Ottawa will be delayed until early next year so as not to cause workers too much stress over the holidays as well as to allow them to sort out their transportation arrangements to the site.

The delay will also ensure that amenities such as a gym and doughnut shop will be ready for workers when they arrive, according to a message sent Tuesday to all employees by Vice Admiral Mark Norman, vice chief of the defence staff.

The message was obtained by the Citizen.

The first major wave of Canadian Forces and Department of National Defence staff was supposed to move into the former Nortel campus starting in the fall.

But in his message Norman says that move would not start until Jan. 9.

Norman said that since the move to the Carling Avenue location is a large undertaking, it is causing changes to the work and personal schedules of employees.

Because the DND and Canadian Forces want to minimize such disruptions, the decision was made to delay the move.

“Even though the first building is just about ready for occupancy, I have directed that the move of Military Personnel Command not start before 9 January 2017,” Norman wrote to employees. “This means that when we do move in, there will be more services and amenities available, things like the gym, Canex and Tim Hortons,” he stated. “It means we won’t be adding to the stresses that the holiday season may bring to some. It also allows members of the Defence Team to visit the site as part of a programmed transition, while trying out your new commute before their official move.”

Some Department of National Defence employees and Canadian Forces personnel have voiced concern over the move, pointing out that many live in Orléans and that the commute to the west end of Ottawa would be too long. A June 2011 briefing note for then-DND deputy minister Robert Fonberg described the Carling Avenue site as a “relatively remote location.”

Norman acknowledged in an interview with the Citizen several months ago that some employees face a long commute to get to the new defence headquarters.

In total, about 8,500 federal workers and military personnel will be eventually working from the campus.

The first phase was to have seen the move, between the fall and summer 2017, of 3,400 staff from the offices of the military and civilian human resources branches, science and technology, information management as well as Canadian Forces Support Unit Ottawa.

It is unclear how the delay will affect the move phases that are to follow.

Under the original schedule, starting in the summer of 2017, another 3,900 would arrive at the campus. They would include staff from the Department of National Defence’s policy and finance branches, public affairs, auditors and those involved in infrastructure. Also included in that move would be staff from the Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Navy and some air force personnel. That phase is expected to be finished in 2018. The final phase will be conducted in 2019 and would include 1,190 personnel from the information management section and the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Norman said he is confident that when employees see what positive changes are in store for them at the new headquarters location, they will enjoy their work experience. “This adjustment will take time and will affect everyone differently,” he added in his message.

The campus consists of about 28 hectares once owned by Nortel and 120 hectares leased from the National Capital Commission.

The DND and military, however, will still continue operating DND’s main downtown location, the Major-General George R. Pearkes Building on Colonel By Drive, as well as its facility on Star Top Road. In addition, DND and military staff will still continue to work from the Louis St. Laurent complex, the National Printing Bureau building and the Hotel de Ville building in Gatineau.

[email protected]
Twitter.com/davidpugliese

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/dnd-move-to-nortel-campus-delayed-till-new-year

[rocketphish]

A lonely dispatch from the desolate Nortel compound, still awaiting DND reinforcements

Robert Bostelaar
Published on: December 9, 2016 | Last Updated: December 9, 2016 5:15 PM EST

OUTPOST NORTEL, CHRISTMAS 2016

Dearest: If you read these words it will mean the envelope I left beneath the Yuletide tree in the Great Glass Hall has been found and relayed. Alas, I have no gift for you, but only this accounting of our final days in this godforsaken spot.

Four harsh summers, four cruel winters have passed since our advance party reached this brick and glass compound in the western wilds of the capital. At first we rejoiced in the luxuries of this site, so strangely vacated by the Nortelians, and worked with vigour to prepare it as the new home of our Dominion’s military.

And oh how eagerly we anticipated the arrival of reinforcements. We swept. We polished. How proud we wanted our generals and admirals to be.

When did we begin to lose hope? Was it when the first scheduled arrival date came and went, or the second or the third? When did the grumbles grow into despair?

If only we could have been reprovisioned. The tinned foodstuffs we brought lasted just two years, and in truth, seemed rather off from the start. There were those who suggested the “Best Before 1845” dates were not, in fact, typos.

At first, of course, we could feast upon the deer, geese and turkeys so abundant hereabouts. But then a force of “conservation officers” rudely forbade us from harvesting this natural bounty.

Soon such hostility would invade our every relation with the natives. The people who live not far off, and who had earlier welcomed us to their outdoor grilling ceremonies, started to jeer and look at their watches, asking where our “buddies” were. They shone bright lights when we foraged in their gardens at night.

Merchants in Bells Corners, the closest settlement, began rejecting the chits we offered for food and supplies, and the proprietors of wine and spirits shops chased us away when we gathered at their doors to sing ballads and pass a forage cap for a few pence.

Some of our dwindling number set out through the woods for that place known as Kan-ata, the rumoured new home of the Nortelians, or an even more distant land called Barr-haven. None returned.

We who remained held on, clinging to the promise that troops from the Ottawa headquarters would finally come to our rescue in this last month of 2016. And then came the crushing news that the move had been once again postponed, partly to give our fellows more time to prepare for the arduous journey to Moodie Drive and Carling Avenue, and partly because we, the advance party, had failed to have the necessary amenities – a gymnasium, a CANEX store, a Tim Hortons – ready for them.

I bear them no ill will. Without some comforts, life at the frontier becomes unbearable. All here know this. And so, Dearest, I can only hope that you and the children – how big they must be now – have received my hardship payments, and now will benefit from my pension, which should at least keep you in doughnuts.

Yrs. affctly,
R.

Robert Bostelaar is a freelance writer who homesteads in Ottawa’s western suburbs.

http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columni...ing-reinforcements-at-the-new-dnd-campus

[rocketphish]

DND move to new Ottawa headquarters suffers further delay

James Bagnall, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: April 20, 2017 | Last Updated: April 20, 2017 6:30 AM EDT



Whatever happened to military precision?

By the end of last month, about 3,400 employees from the Department of National Defence were supposed to have decamped from their downtown offices and moved to part of the former Nortel campus in the city’s west end, the site of DND’s new headquarters.

Instead, fewer than 1,000, all part of the military’s human resources group, have so far been relocated.

Now nine years in development, the $800-million-plus project is finally putting boots on the ground. Eventually, DND will consolidate 40 facilities across the national capital region into a handful, with more than half of its 16,000 local staff stationed in the new headquarters.

The initial target for completing the first of three phases destined for the former Nortel campus — the 3,400 — was March 31 of 2016.

However, the department delayed things one year to replace defective windows and to bring buildings up to code to withstand potential seismic events.

The reason for the latest delay? DND may have simply underestimated the complexity of the move — not to mention the associated politics. One insider explained that it’s sometimes difficult to convince groups within the department to move when it suits the project leaders. Another factor is that it’s taking longer than expected to fit up the buildings.

For the moment, only one of the former Nortel labs — known now as Building 8 — is fully occupied, with 750 defence employees. Other elements of DND’s human resources unit are relocating from downtown to Building 9, which is to be filled by mid-June. That’s another 750 or so.

Combined, Buildings 8 and 9 represent less than half of the project’s first phase. But don’t look for the military to move quickly after that.

“We plan to take a pause during the summer,” said one DND official, “in order to minimize the disruption.” The new deadline to finish the first phase? December.

This will naturally squeeze the project’s overall timelines.

Before the latest delay in Phase I, DND had been planning to add another 3,900 (Phase 2) by March 31, 2018, and 1900 (Phase 3) by March 31, 2019.

Does it matter if all these phases are pushed further out? Almost certainly, yes. Delays will force DND to extend some of its downtown leases while its employees await their new office space.

When the first phase was pushed back one year, the department was forced to shell out millions of dollars in unanticipated lease costs.

The delay in DND fully occupying the former Nortel site has also been a disappointment for realtors and retailers, who had been expecting a bit of a bump in sales as the military shifted west.

It’s not just that there are fewer than expected employees at the new headquarters. The number of moves being orchestrated by the department across the system is also down “significantly” this year according to Rick Eisert, present of the Ottawa Real Estate Board.

“There is going to be a bit of a bump in the west end, but it will be the result of people moving into the capital and there are fewer such moves this year,” he said. “DND people already living here probably won’t sell their homes.”

House prices in the west end certainly haven’t been increasing in a robust fashion. March data from the Ottawa Real Estate Board suggests single-family homes appreciated a little more than four per cent year over year in nearby Kanata, Barrhaven and Bells Corners — slightly less than for the city as a whole.

Nevertheless, price gains in Stittsville were up nearly eight per cent. Chris Scott, a sales representative with Keller Williams VIP Realty, explained “Stittsville is the community of choice for Canadian Forces members,” adding that increased sales this year have cut inventories of available houses.

Paul Rushforth, owner of the real-estate firm that bears his name, agrees housing markets in Stittsville — and to a certain extent Barrhaven — are showing increased momentum. “It’s difficult to find properties because everything is selling so quickly.” Precisely how much of this is related to the DND headquarters project is unclear.

However, it does suggest that if military planners finally get their headquarters plans on track, the west end really will feel the jolt of the military’s occupation.

[email protected]
Twitter.com/JamesBagnall1

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/dnd-move-to-new-headquarters-suffers-further-delay

[VANRIDERFAN]

It would have been far far far cheaper for DND to just build a pentagon type building somewhere else on DND owned land in the NCR. But this is the typical Canadian MO, spend dollars to save pennies.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

It would have been far far far cheaper for DND to just build a pentagon type building somewhere else on DND owned land in the NCR. But this is the typical Canadian MO, spend dollars to save pennies.

Hind sight is always 20/20 on these things.

[J.OT13]

Hindsight!? We all saw this coming.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Hindsight!? We all saw this coming.

The government should never renovate and always buy new because every renovation they do seems to be super delayed. Maybe it is the number of decisions required when renovating versus new? Even smaller renovations of cabins in a national park or something seem to go terribly awry.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

The government should never renovate and always buy new because every renovation they do seems to be super delayed. Maybe it is the number of decisions required when renovating versus new? Even smaller renovations of cabins in a national park or something seem to go terribly awry.

The government really struggles with managing custom vs off-the-shelf procurement decisions (not just real estate, but military equipment, IT such as phoenix, etc). Bureaucrats dangle big savings in front of of politicians for choosing some sort of off the shelf product, and then try to customize the hell out of it at enormous cost and delay.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Any contractor will tell you that as soon as you open something up then all bets are off.
Right now DND Real Property Operations are doing an in depth review of all Primary Reserve Infrastructure across Canada with a view to reducing assets by a large percentage.

Given the track record of DND I envision a cluster of epic proportions. As I say at the start of every DND initiative and have yet to be proven wrong (sad to say)

[TheGoods]

I am curious how much more was spent to retrofit versus build new with all the bells and whistle, security infrastructure, IT cost and all the furniture. What is the average price per square foot if you had to built this from scratch?

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

The government should never renovate and always buy new because every renovation they do seems to be super delayed. Maybe it is the number of decisions required when renovating versus new? Even smaller renovations of cabins in a national park or something seem to go terribly awry.

Do new buildings built for the government have a better track record than renovations? Seems to me new construction is also vulnruble to delays and cost overruns.

[rocketphish]

DND employees told not to drink water at new headquarters because of lead and chemicals

David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen 05.01.2017

Employees at the Department of National Defence’s new Ottawa headquarters have been told not to drink water at the site after recent tests showed it contained unacceptably high levels of lead and chemicals.

Bottled water is being passed out to workers at the $800 million facility in the west end of Ottawa, the former campus of defunct telecom company Nortel, and the Tim Hortons coffee shop on the site has suspended its service, a DND spokesperson confirmed.

“Building occupants were advised against consuming the water as it does not meet Health Canada guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality requirements,” Lt. Cmdr. Lora Collier said in an email. “While the water quality is assessed as not posing any immediate health risk, the sample results do indicate the potential for long-term health risks if consumed over a long period of time.”

The drinking water advisory was issued April 27 as a precaution to occupants of buildings 8 and 9 at the DND’s new headquarters, to which DND is in the process of moving. So far, around 980 DND employees are working at the site, almost all in the affected buildings.

John MacLennan, president of the Union of National Defence Employees, said his organization has been trying to get more details. “We want to know how long this has been going on and whether people will get tested for lead exposure,”said MacLennan, whose union represents DND workers.

Before the water ban became public, he said, the union was already hearing concerns from staff questioning the environmental safety of the Nortel site as some workers were complaining about headaches and stomach issues.

Collier said the water test results are “indicative of stagnant water probably caused by low water demand, and indicate general chemistry, disinfectant by-product and metal exceedances.”

The results indicated elevated levels of lead and chemicals called trihalomethane.

“While individual elevations are not considered concerning, in taking the results together, it was deemed prudent as a strictly precautionary measure to advise building 8 and 9 occupants to avoid consuming the water in those buildings until the situation is resolved,” said Collier.

Public Services and Procurement Canada will arrange for crews to flush the water system. After that further testing will be conducted. It is unclear when this process will be finished and when staff can go back to drinking the water at the campus.

Regular building operations continue as usual except for Tim Hortons, which has elected to temporarily suspend its services, Collier said.

Senior government officials maintain the move to the new facility will save taxpayers $750 million over the next 25 years. DND will consolidate its 40 facilities across the national capital region into a small number of locations, with more than half of its 16,000 local staff stationed in the Carling Avenue headquarters.

The project, however, has fallen behind schedule. DND had originally wanted around 3,400 staff at the campus by March 31, 2016. It is estimated that there should be around 1,500 staff in buildings 8 and 9 by this summer.

Some Department of National Defence employees and Canadian Forces personnel have voiced concern over the move, pointing out that many live in the east-end Ottawa suburb of Orléans and that the commute to the west end of Ottawa will be too long. A June 2011 briefing note for then-DND deputy minister Robert Fonberg described the Carling Avenue site as a “relatively remote location.”

— with files from James Bagnall, Ottawa Citizen

• Email: [email protected]

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/nation...cause+lead+chemicals/13337811/story.html

[rocketphish]

Water at new DND headquarters now safe to drink

David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: May 8, 2017 | Last Updated: May 8, 2017 1:12 PM EDT

The almost 1,000 federal workers at the former Nortel campus on Carling Avenue can now drink the water.

A drinking-water ban for the Department of National Defence campus had been in place since April 27 after tests found higher than acceptable levels of lead and other chemicals. Bottled water was passed out to the DND employees and the Tim Hortons coffee shop at the headquarters complex in the west end of Ottawa had temporarily suspended its service.

However, a new series of tests has determined the water is now within the acceptable limits, according to Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Department of National Defence.

“Water samples obtained on 2 May were tested and the results confirm that the water is clear and meets Health Canada drinking water quality guidelines,” DND employees were told in a May 8 message obtained by the Citizen.

The drinking water advisory was issued as a precaution to occupants of buildings 8 and 9 at the DND Carling campus. The former Nortel facility is to be the new headquarters for the DND. So far, about 980 DND employees are working at the site, almost all in buildings 8 and 9.

The DND has tried to reassure its employees about the water issues. “Short-term exposure to drinking water that contains levels slightly higher than the Health Canada guidelines for drinking water quality is not expected to have health effects since the drinking water guidelines are based on a lifetime of exposure,” it added in its message to workers.

But John MacLennan, president of the Union of National Defence Employees, said his organization has its concerns.

MacLennan, whose union represents DND workers, noted that before the water ban became public, his staff were already hearing concerns from employees questioning the environmental safety of the Carling Avenue site. Some workers there were complaining about headaches and stomach issues, he added.

The previous water quality results indicated that low water demand in the campus buildings resulted in standing water in the pipes, which, in turn, led to the higher levels of contaminants. The lines were flushed twice to clear them of any stagnant water.

“A plan is in place to ensure the water system is flushed on a regular basis in order to avoid any future accumulation of standing water in the pipes,” the DND message noted. “Water testing will remain ongoing as needed, and Canadian Health Services Centre (Ottawa) Preventative Medicine will interpret the results to ensure safe drinking water guidelines continue to be met.”

The federal government spent $208 million to buy the Nortel complex; at a December 2013 briefing for journalists, defence officials said it will cost another $506 million to refit the buildings and $41 million in “transition costs,” which are the costs of existing DND leases at other sites throughout Ottawa and Gatineau.

DND will consolidate its 40 facilities across the national capital region into a small number of locations, with more than half of its 16,000 local staff stationed at the Carling Avenue headquarters.

Senior government officials maintain the move will save taxpayers $750 million over the next 25 years.

The project, however, has fallen behind schedule. The DND had originally wanted around 3,400 staff at the campus by March 31, 2016. It is estimated there should be about 1,500 staff in buildings 8 and 9 by this summer.

[email protected]
Twitter.com/davidpugliese

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/water-at-new-dnd-headquarters-now-safe-to-drink

[rocketphish]

DND says first of three phases in HQ move complete, but target for overall project pushed out to 2020

James Bagnall, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: January 9, 2018 | Last Updated: January 9, 2018 7:25 PM EST



The new headquarters for the Department of National Defence at 60 Moodie Drive is finally acquiring some critical mass following the shift of some 3,500 employees from other locations across the region.

This represents the first of three phases that will eventually see 8,500 of the department’s 16,000 local civilian and military personnel move to the former Nortel Networks campus.

Nearly a decade in development, the $800 million project is running 21 months late. DND also confirmed Tuesday that the target for completing all three phases is now March 31, 2020 – one year later than previously acknowledged. And that’s assuming everything goes smoothly from now on.



This assumption might be a stretch. The first phase of the move, which includes human resources and other back office employees, involved buildings 6 through 9 – former Nortel labs that were among the most modern on the 370-acre campus. Construction crews encountered some difficulties in getting the facilities ready for occupation – such as defective windows that needed replacing. But the work was relatively straightforward.

The second phase, which concentrates on the headquarters’ hub, may prove more challenging. The heart of the construction effort now underway involves building 5, the massive, domed centrepiece that dominates the Nepean skyline. Building 5 is expected to house key military planners and related staff, serving as the central nervous system of the headquarters.



DND expects it will begin moving an additional 3,900 employees late in November into building 5 and several nearby facilities. If successful, this phase would end around March 31, 2019 – about one year late. Coincidentally, that was the original target for completing all three phases. The date for completing the project was recently pushed to March 31, 2020.

The new targets assume that as the project matures, managers will benefit from a learning curve – efficiencies will increase with experience, in other words. At the very least, as the campus fills up, DND will be able to shed dozens of office leases around the region, eventually realizing what it hopes will be significant annual savings. Just how large the benefits will be isn’t clear because delays in moving to the new HQ along Moodie Drive have forced certain DND units to extend leases downtown and elsewhere longer than expected.

Despite the overall delay, however, the presence of 3,500 newcomers at 60 Moodie Drive — with the prospect of many more to come — is already helping to shake up Ottawa’s housing market. Price momentum for single-family homes has clearly been stronger in the west, according to Postmedia’s analysis of detailed data provided by the Ottawa Real Estate Board.

Month after month, the vast majority of the city’s top ten real estate districts – measured by price hikes year over year – have been in the west while most of the bottom ten have been clustered in the east around Blackburn Hamlet and adjoining districts. Blackburn Hamlet is well known for its role as a bedroom community for DND headquarters, currently situated downtown at 101 Colonel By Drive.

The precise influence of the new DND headquarters isn’t clear. Anecdotally, DND employees who live in the east end aren’t rushing em masse to sell their homes to relocate in the west. For one thing, thousands of DND employees will continue to work at 101 Colonel By and other downtown locations indefinitely.

What seems to be happening is this: when DND employees from other Canadian bases are transferred to Ottawa, they opt for houses or apartments in the west end. The numbers aren’t huge but, when combined with the relatively low number of houses available for sale, they can serve as a catalyst for higher prices.

Since phase 2 won’t get underway for another ten months or so, the true impact of DND’s headquarters shift on the real estate market won’t be felt for awhile.

The new headquarters’ influence over military operations and management will similarly be unknown for at least another year.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...t-for-overall-project-pushed-out-to-2020

[rocketphish]

DND will spend $1.1 billion on new Ottawa headquarters as employees move into $800M complex
The department has set its sights on what it calls a new operational headquarters, which it expects to host 4,500 civilian and military personnel

David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: May 15, 2018 | Last Updated: May 15, 2018 5:37 PM EDT

The Department of National Defence is planning a new $1.1 billion building in Ottawa’s west end, even while employees are settling into its $800-million headquarters complex at the former Nortel campus.

The department has set its sights on what it calls a new operational headquarters, which it expects to host 4,500 civilian and military personnel. That facility will be in addition to the headquarters at what was once the technology company’s campus on Carling Ave. which will house almost 9,000 employees. DND also intends to keep its massive complex at 101 Colonel By Drive in downtown Ottawa.

The new operational headquarters, to be constructed in the mid-to-late 2020s, will be located close to the Nortel site and will be home to various commands including the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command and the Canadian Joint Operations Command, DND spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier confirmed.

The office of the vice-chief of the defence staff will also be located in the new building. “In order to centralize these efforts, the Department of National Defence requires a modern facility that enables secure joint operational command, control, communications, coordination and capabilities for operational planning and control of Canadian Armed Forces operations domestically, continentally and globally,” said Le Bouthillier.

The plan will see employees moving into the new operational headquarters starting around 2029, after which DND would vacate its facility at Star Top Rd. in Ottawa’s east end. It is not clear whether another department would move into that building, which is owned by a private company and leased by the federal government.

The government announced last week it wants to hire an architectural and engineering firm to design the new 75,000-square-metre facility — an advance notice so interested parties could apply for the security clearances necessary to bid on the contract.

In making a case to spend the original $800 million on the Nortel complex, senior DND officials claimed there would be substantial savings from consolidating employees in the one location, arguing that the 42 DND and Canadian Forces office locations in Ottawa and Gatineau would be reduced to seven or fewer, leading to savings of $750 million in office rent alone over the subsequent 25 years. No mention was ever made of the need for an additional purpose-built facility.

But Le Bouthillier said the Liberal government’s new defence policy outlined the need to have a single operational hub to enable the key military commands to produce accurate and timely advice, improving command and control for military decision makers, increasing information sharing and boosting the protection for key military personnel in case of a natural disaster or other security incidents. The specific location of the new headquarters will be determined during the options analysis phase of the project, but it will be in close proximity to the Carling site, he said.

Between the Nortel campus and the new headquarters, more than 13,000 of the 20,500 DND employees and Canadian Forces personnel working in locations throughout Ottawa and Gatineau will eventually be concentrated in Ottawa’s west end. To date, only 3,600 of the planned 9,000 staff have moved into the former Nortel complex, the relocation process running about two years behind schedule.

Some DND employees and Canadian Forces personnel have voiced concern over the move to the Carling Ave. site, pointing out that many live in Orléans and the commute will be long. A June 2011 briefing note prepared for then-deputy minister Robert Fonberg described the Carling site as a “relatively remote location.”

Some DND civilian employees have opted to take jobs with other federal departments rather than work in the west end of Ottawa, but the government was unable to provide details about exactly how many have done so.

Email: [email protected]

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/d...wcm/ad234da5-9ec9-4075-b503-91c7576cd5b9

[kevinbottawa]

I was hoping they'd vacate their downtown headquarters.

[MarkR]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

I was hoping they'd vacate their downtown headquarters.

Not only vacate it but have it torn down and replaced with something / anything else. The current building suits the area like a concrete turd on a dessert plate.

[Truenorth00]

Nobody is leaving downtown. And DND would be foolish to do so given that a lot of the policy staff work at NDHQ and they regularly meet with other counterparts that are in the core. Or with politicians.

If the government wants to toss over several billion, to replace NDHQ, sure....

[J.OT13]

At lest if the DND had a less prominent site downtown, something along the lines of Sussex Drive (near Old City Hall and the Pearson Building).

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

A June 2011 briefing note prepared for then-deputy minister Robert Fonberg described the Carling site as a “relatively remote location.”

Relatively remote??? Isolated maybe, but that is a good thing from a security viewpoint. I guess it is a matter of perspective. It is only about 17km from Parliment Hill, which really isn't that far.