Cunctator’s got it. Impressive, from half a globe away. Obviously, governments and heritage properties are much of a muchness all over the Commonwealth!
The federal government began work on the new Supreme Court building in 1937 (I think that was the year - the year of King George and Queen Elizabeth’s royal tour.) The Court had been trying to get its own building for decades, having been housed for many years in the former stables of Parliament. (I kid you not.) Queen Elizabeth laid the corner stone for the new Court building, and work started.
Then WWII started in 1939, and the federal government announced that the new SCC building was needed for the war effort. It took over the building for military purposes. As part of that military purpose, it built the white frame building that the Mercotans saw. If I recall correctly, it was a pre-fab, military issue building that was not expected to last for more than the duration of the war, ± five years or so. However, they built better than they knew… plus, with government inertia, when something is in existence and being used, it always takes a positive capital allocation to tear it down and replace it, whereas small ongoing maintenace costs are much easier to cover, so old stock tends to hang around long past their “best before” dates.
Fast forward to the late 80s, when I was working in Ottawa. At that time, it served as the Registry for the Federal Court, which used a couple of the courtrooms in the Supreme Court building. The gossip I heard was that under federal law, once a federal building had existed for 50 years, it came under heritage review, potentially becoming much more difficult to get rid of. The clock was ticking, as the thing had been in existence for over 40 years by that time. However, to tear it down would require providing different space for the Federal Court Registry, which would require a capital outlay. The Federal Court had been trying for decades to get its own building, rather than continuing in this cast-off from the Department of Defence (see: Supreme Court, wanting own building, supra).
Last I heard, the Federal Court finally got newer accomodations (but not yet its own building), so the Federal Court Registry is no longer in the old white pre-fab. However, by now the pre-fab is more than 50 years old, and a potential federal heritage site.
So what, you might say? an old military building, then a court registry - how much heritage value can that have? But wait, there’s more! At one stage in the early 70s, before the Federal Court was created, the federal Justice Deparatment used the building as its overflow area. A couple of bright young (well, youngish middle-aged) federal lawyers were toiling away in that building, working on a document dealing with legal rights.
Fast forward a decade, and it turns out that their initial drafts led to a thing called the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (You may have heard about it.) And the two lawyers, Jean Beetz and Gérard La Forest found other employment in the federal system.
So there actually is a fair bit of heritage packed away in that decripit old building - the problem still is what to do with it, which is why it’s still there.
