By Ashley Darch
Sixteen years after an asbestos problem was first identified in Parliament Hill’s West Block, there has still been no attempt to clean it up.
A report commissioned last year by the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada stated the building needed to be vacated by December 2004. Only Public Works has moved its employees out and has limited the time workers spend in the building.
The report stated there was no way to predict when a release of asbestos fibres may occur.
Pierre Teotonio, spokesman for the department, says the building will have to be completely shut down for renovations. Public Works is still finalizing an action plan for this. The plan is expected to cost $1.6 billion.
“The long-term vision plan is still being reviewed, so renovations are still being confirmed,” says Teotonio.
The plan was implemented by the department and it will take 25 years to renovate all the Parliament buildings.
The plan is designed to create more space, and fix many hazards that exist in the buildings, such as the asbestos. The plan slates the renovations on West Block to occur from 2008 to 2011.
Ed Cashman, an executive member of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, says it’s been a very “long and painful struggle” to get something done.
“Our members have been working with this threat for a long, long time,” he says.
The union represents approximately 800 Parliament Hill employees.
Existing workplace protection guidelines in the Health and Safety Act do not apply to Parliament Hill workers. This means workers in West Block do not have the right to walk off a job they feel is unsafe, like other workers in Canada.
“The theory is that you cannot interfere with the running of Parliament . . . but the government has a responsibility to protect all workers.”
The union is starting a letter campaign to all MPs to educate them about the hazards of working in West Block.
“The point of the letter writing campaign is to find out who our supporters are and who are not and that will allow us to go after them and to find someone who we can work with,” Cashman explains.
Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy moved her staff out of West Block last year, but many MPs are reluctant to leave.
Liberal MP Mark Holland says he is not looking forward to having to move when the renovations happen.
“It’s a beautiful building. It’s obviously got a lot of history and I am very taken by that. I am very happy with the spot I’m at.”
Cashman says this attitude among many of the MPs makes it difficult to lobby for changes.
“They value, sadly, their proximity to Centre Block more than they do their health and safety and, more so, the health and safety of their employees,” he says.
Pat Martin, NDP MP from Winnipeg, says there is no health risk.
He says there are tests done every day in all the offices for asbestos and the tests have never found any fibres in his own office.
“There is constant monitoring and if I thought for one minute my staff or I were exposed we’d be out of here so fast your head would spin.”
An administrative assistant working in West Block says there are rumours the renovations will begin in June when the house breaks for the summer.
“I personally haven’t seen a memo here in the last three months but I know they have been circulated,” the assistant says.
Holland and Martin, however, say they have heard no plans for renovations to start. They both say the most likely time for renovations will be when the next election is called.
Renovations in West Block were slated to start in 1999 to fix the asbestos and other maintenance issues in West Block but Alfonso Gagliano, Public Works minister at the time, ordered it to stop when it was revealed the work would cost $1.4 billion.