I'm not sure if stories disappear from from ipolitics.ca, or if they stay up "forever" like on UrbanToronto, so in case it vanishes from the link in the post above, here it is:
1,900 federal staff to vacate downtown Toronto offices as property sale nears closing
By
Amanda Connolly | Mar 7, 2016 5:00 am | 1 comment |
Dominion Public Building at 1 Front St in Toronto. Photo:
Nhl4hamilton/Wikipedia
Forty-one per cent of federal employees working in downtown Toronto will be moved out of the core over the next five years as the government moves to cut costs and sell off Crown property.
There are currently 4,600 bureaucrats based in Toronto’s core but according to question period briefing documents prepared for Public Works and Government Procurement Minister Judy Foote, and obtained by iPolitics under an access to information request, many of them have no need to be there rather than in lower-cost offices outside downtown. In particular, those in the Dominion Public Building, located at 1 Front Street West, will be moved to “longer-term, lower cost accommodation options” outside of downtown Toronto over the coming years, although staff from other offices will move as well.
“Most of the departments do not have an imperative business case to operate in downtown Toronto,” write department officials in the background section of a document that suggests talking points in case the minister was asked about plans to sell the Dominion Public Building, located across from Union Station.
The building currently houses the Toronto office for the Canada School of Public Service, the Southern Ontario office for the Canada Border Service Agency and the Canada Revenue Agency’s Toronto Centre Tax Services Office.
For close to a decade, there have been rumours that the federal government would sell the 38,000-square-foot Dominion Public Building, which has occupied prime real estate in the heart of downtown Toronto since 1935.
The background documents suggest the federal government recognizes that the five-storey heritage location has potential to be adapted for more efficient use.
“The building is currently not fulfilling the obligation to be at the highest and best use as there is unrealized additional density associated with this location,” reads the briefing. “The anticipated reduction in federal presence in downtown Toronto does not support continued retention of this building in the portfolio.”
Negotiations underway now to sell the property to Canada Lands Company Ltd. are expected to close by April 1, 2016, the documents say.
Canada Lands Company Ltd. is the Crown corporation that handles the redevelopment of property the federal government wants to sell off.
The company assesses redevelopment potential and decides on how best to manage the transition out of federal hands through consultations with community partners.
Neither the federal government nor Canada Lands are releasing details of what the property is worth at this time.
Manon Lapensée, spokesperson for Canada Lands, could not confirm the April 2016 timeline referred to in Foote’s briefing notes but said Canada Lands is having conversations about the property. She said she would not speculate on what Canada Lands could do if it acquires the Dominion Public Building or how much it is worth.
“We purchase properties at fair market value. Nothing is given to us,” she said. “When we acquire a property we have no preconceived notions of what to do with it.”
Once the property leaves the federal government’s real estate portfolio, it
will lose its federally-protected heritage status.
Toronto city officials have been working for the past several months to get it recognized under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.
While it is listed on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Register and under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act (as part of the Union Station Heritage Conservative District), that section of the act only applies to the exterior of the building.
If city officials get it listed under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, interior features would also receive protection.
Toronto City Council
stated its intention to designate the building in its last council meeting on February 3, 2016, and once the property transfers hands, the city’s solicitor will introduce a bill at City Council so members can vote on the proposal.
If it passes, the designation would go to the Conservation Review Board for approval.
There’s no word yet on where the 1,900 federal employees moving out of downtown Toronto will go.
“At this point, we are still assessing requirements of federal departments,”said Jeremy Link, spokesperson for Public Works and Government Procurement, in an email. “Options may include using existing assets, leased accommodation or a combination of both.”
