The renovation of Montreal City Hall will eventually reach 210 million, the Plante administration announced Monday afternoon.
The elected official responsible for the municipal real estate, Émilie Thuillier, assured that this should be the last budget increase to finalize this heritage renovation project which has experienced significant cost overruns and delays since its launch in 2019.
The building should be delivered at the end of 2023, more than a year late.
“We made a modified budget to complete the work, [avec] an increase of 28.5 million,” she explained. This increase pushes renovations to 196.5 million, to which must be added related bills of 14 million for furnishings, internet systems, etc. “It’s really everyone’s wish to complete the work with this budget. »
Mme Thuillier argued that the COVID-19 pandemic had had significant impacts on the site and that surprises forced additional work to be carried out.
The costs of this renovation project have exploded since its presentation in 2017, when they were estimated at 88 million, before increasing to 116 million in 2018. Then, last May, new cost overruns brought it to 168 million, before adding furniture and technological equipment in August, for a total of 182 million.
“This project is a blatant example of the mismanagement of the administration which spends taxpayers’ money as if there was no tomorrow”, commented the leader of the opposition at the town hall, Aref Salem. “The Plante administration lied to Montrealers by assuring them that there would be no new cost overruns. »
“One of the largest restoration projects in the history of Quebec”
Just before the announcement of Mme Thuillier, the media were able to visit the restoration site of the town hall. Some rooms are almost ready to welcome their occupants, while others will still require hundreds of hours of work.
The biggest challenge for the team working on site: hiding the new plumbing, the new heating/air conditioning system and the new electrical network behind heritage elements that must be preserved at all costs.
“This is one of the largest restoration projects in the history of Quebec,” assured Menaud Lapointe, the architect in charge of the project. “It really is a huge campaign of restoration work. »
Mr. Lapointe indicated that the contractor carrying out the work had called on a plethora of specialized craftsmen – blacksmiths, cabinetmakers, plasterers, specialists in gilding or stained glass – in order to get as close as possible to the decor, such as the Montrealers could admire it in 1926.
The architect explained that the project consisted in particular in removing the successive layers of paint, floor or even ceilings (!) which had accumulated over the course of the work carried out at the town hall during its first century of existence. .
Montreal City Hall was rebuilt in 1926 after a major fire that had occurred a few years earlier.
With the collaboration of Isabelle Ducas, The Press