DND move to Nortel campus delayed because of structural issues with buildings
David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: March 26, 2015, Last Updated: March 26, 2015 10:16 AM EDT
The Department of National Defence is delaying its move into the former Nortel complex because of structural problems in a number of buildings on the campus.
DND employees were supposed to start moving in to buildings at 3500 Carling Avenue site by the end of this year.
But that will be delayed for at least nine months as the federal government spends $30 million to fix the structural problems, the Citizen has been told by a senior government official familiar with the situation.
The government will also have to spend another $6 million on extending leases for DND offices around the Ottawa area as employees in those locations cannot yet move to the Nortel campus.
A structural analysis conducted in November revealed the seriousness of the problems with the outside walls of the four buildings, according to Public Works documents obtained by the Citizen.
The giant walls are made up of panels of glass windows. The seals on many of the windows have failed and the frames that support the glass are weak, according to the Public Works document.
All the windows will now have to be replaced. In addition, the company that provided the original materials went out of business in 2011, the documents noted.
The move of the first DND employees to the campus will now take place in the fall of 2016 because of the reconstruction of the outside glass walls, the government official said.
DND will eventually transfer 8,500 military and civilian employees to the Carling Avenue location. Despite the initial delay, the move is still expected to be finished by 2020.
The 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.
The campus consists of about 28 hectares that was owned by Nortel and 120 hectares leased from the National Capital Commission.
The move will eventually reduce the number of rented and leased DND locations in Ottawa-Gatineau from 47 to seven.
Government officials still insist the move of DND employees will save taxpayers $750 million over the next 25 years. The DND and Public Works have not released any information, however, to back up that claim.
Asked how the government can be sure it will have realized a saving of $750 million a quarter-century from now, a Public Works official noted during the December 2013 briefing for journalists that the department is the government’s real estate expert.
Internal DND documents provide some of the reasons for the move to Nortel: reduced cab fares, less need for commissionaires to guard offices and an atmosphere that allows people to work better together.
In 2013, the Citizen reported on concerns raised by former Nortel employees and security experts that electronic eavesdropping devices from past industrial espionage operations could still be embedded in the campus.
At the time the DND denied that was the case and Julie Di Mambro, spokeswoman for then defence minister Rob Nicholson, said the government received assurances from the department that no bugs or listening devices had ever been found.
But at the December 2013 press briefing, the DND officials admitted they had never conducted a full search of the campus for listening devices.
Some DND employees and Canadian Forces personnel have also voiced concern over the move, pointing out that many live in Orléans and the commute would be too long. A June 2011 briefing note for then DND deputy minister Robert Fonberg described the Carling Campus as a “relatively remote location.”
The department, however, has said it will provide some transportation for its employees and is looking at using shuttle buses from specific locations.
The latest problem with the outside walls of the Nortel buildings isn’t the first time the move has been delayed.
Department of National Defence staff were originally supposed to be at the Carling Avenue campus starting in January 2014, according to an internal DND document. That initial move was to be the first group of 3,300 employees.
DND has not explained why that move was delayed.
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