PM's official residence closed as uninhabitable

24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of Canada's Prime Minister, has been closed as uninhabitable due to rodent infestations, mold, asbestos, and wiring concerns, yet still costs more than $100,000 in annual upkeep. 

PM's official residence closed following discovery of walls full of dead rodents | National Post - Bryan Passifiume:

April 3, 2023 - "Attempts to control a significant rodent infestation at the prime minister’s official residence left so many carcasses within the walls and basement that serious questions were raised.... In newly released documents obtained by the National Post via an access to information request, National Capital Commission staff detailed numerous serious safety concerns about the deteriorating condition of 24 Sussex Drive — prompting the decision last fall to close the home and relocate staff still working at the official residence.

“'There is an important rodent infestation, which can’t be fully addressed until the building envelope issues are resolved,' the note from late June read. 'In the meantime, we use bait to control the situation, but that leaves us with excrement and carcasses between the walls and in the attic and basement spaces.' This, the note states, leads to 'real concerns with air quality'....

"24 Sussex Drive costs taxpayers $146,694 in annual upkeep, despite the fact Justin Trudeau and his family don't actually reside there.... Completed in 1896, 24 Sussex Drive is a 35-room, four-floor mansion that’s served as the prime minister’s official residence since 1951 when Louis St. Laurent moved in. It was classified as a federal heritage building in 1986. Stephen Harper was the last prime minister to live at 24 Sussex. Current PM Justin Trudeau, who spent much of his childhood in the home when his father was prime minister, has chosen instead to live at Rideau cottage on the grounds of Rideau Hall. 

"While nobody lives on the property, the grounds are frequently used for functions and garden parties — but even that comes with risks, the report stated. 'Just last week there was a garden party hosting 1,500 people on the day we had tornado warnings for the area,” the notes read. 'If a meteorological event would have occurred, human nature could have led to hundreds of guests rushing into this uninhabitable building, which is a risk we can’t accept.'

"Until safety issues prompted the NCC to close the official residence in November, the home was still occupied by six workers — most notably the prime minister’s chef and kitchen staff, who prepared the Trudeau family’s meals and transported them to Rideau cottage.... Any mentions of where the 24 Sussex staff were relocated were redacted in the released documents.

"Aside from walls stacked with dead rodents, the presentation also highlighted other safety risks in the residence, including asbestos and decaying insulation on electrical wiring.... An incident last summer involving electrical arcing in a lighting fixture highlights the dangers of the building’s wiring, which the note says has become dangerous due to disintegrating insulation.... Mould, water infiltration, corroding plumbing and asbestos are also listed as urgent concerns....

"A 2021 NCC asset portfolio report paints a grim picture of the state of the residence. 'The official residences reflect the nation to Canadians and to foreign visitors, so they must be maintained at a level that reflects the importance of the role of the residents,' the report read. 'However, funding for official residences has been so constrained in the last several decades that properties such as 24 Sussex no longer reflect even this basic standard'.... The report suggested renovations amounting to $36.6 million were needed to restore the home from 'critical' to 'good' condition....

"According to documents obtained earlier this year by the Ottawa Citizen, the building is still costing taxpayers thousands of dollars in utility bills. The hydro bill for the residence topped $4,947 in January 2023, along with $3,153 in gas and a $568 water bill. Despite the home only being used by a handful of staff, the June 2022 note states the residence’s pool and sauna building — commissioned in 1975 by Pierre Trudeau — was “still used on a very frequent basis.” Questions to the NCC on who used the pool were directed instead to the Privy Council Office, who in turn forwarded the National Post’s query to the Prime Minister’s Office, who didn’t offer a response by press time."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/news/prime-minister-official-residence-rodent-infestation

Sabrina Maddeaux, "24 Sussex Drive is a trash palace. We should tear it down," National Post, August 17, 2021:  

Tax money down the toilet (video)

$2 Million Bathroom | RealClearPolitics - John Stossel:

July 26, 2017 - "Did you see the $2 million dollar bathroom? That's what New York City government spent to build a 'comfort station' in a park. I went to look at it.... It's just a little building with four toilets and four sinks....

"New York City's bureaucrats are unapologetic about their $2 million toilet. The Parks Department even put out a statement saying, 'Our current estimate to build a new comfort station with minimal site work is $3 million'.... Yet not far away, Bryant Park has a bathroom that gets much more use. That bathroom cost just $300,000.

"Why the difference? Bryant Park is privately managed.... Since government spends other people's money, they don't care that much about cost and they certainly don't care much about speed....[I]magine what we could save if government turned construction of government housing, airports and roads over to the private sector."

Read more: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/07/26/2_million_bathroom_134569.html
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The myth of the "crumbling infrastructure"

Our Infrastructure Is Not 'Crumbling.' Repeat: Our Infrastructure Is Not 'Crumbling' - Reason.com - David Harsanyi:

February 9, 2018 - "One of the great myths of American politics, no matter who is president and no matter who runs Congress, is that our infrastructure is 'crumbling.' Former President Barack Obama repeatedly warned us about our 'crumbling infrastructure.' President Donald Trump now tells us that our infrastructure is 'crumbling.' The next president is going to hatch a giant plan to fix our crumbling infrastructure as well, because most voters want to believe infrastructure is crumbling....

"Ask someone about infrastructure and his thoughts will probably wander to the worst pothole-infested road he traverses rather than the hundreds of roads he drives on that are perfectly safe and smooth ... 'crumbling infrastructure' peddlers play on this concern by habitually agonizing over things ... like the 2007 disaster with the Interstate 35 bridge over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis even though, according to federal investigators, the collapse was due to a design flaw rather than decaying infrastructure....

"In reality, the number of structurally deficient bridges, never high to begin with, has been dropping ... from over 22 percent in 1992 to under 10 percent in 2016. According to a Reuters analysis of those bridges, only 4 percent of those that carry significant traffic need repairs. Of the nation's 1,200 busiest bridges, the number of those structurally deficient falls to under 2 percent — or fewer than 20 bridges in the entire country. And none of those bridges need repair....

"That has never stopped politicians from fearmongering, however. 'Our roads and bridges are falling apart; our airports are in Third World condition,' Trump claimed during his 2016 campaign. Yet as the Heritage Foundation's Michael Sargent points out, the percentage of airport runways deemed as poor has fallen from 4 percent in 2004 to 2 percent in 2016. And for the past 30 years, the number of 'acceptable' or above roads has remained relatively consistent at approximately 85 percent....

"Despite years of hearing otherwise, there is still no evidence that infrastructure bills create self-sustaining jobs — or any jobs, for that matter. According to a 2010 Associated Press analysis, the first 10 months of Obama's economic stimulus plan showed virtually no effect on local unemployment rates, which rose and fell regardless of money spent on infrastructure projects....

"Now, ... the White House's plan apparently features some attempt to reduce the regulatory burden that the private sector must wade through before gaining approval for building permits. This is a positive step considering the vast majority of infrastructure is still built by the private sector. This should be a goal of the administration with or without the massive infrastructure bill.

"How we fund the infrastructure, and who builds these projects, is certainly a debate worth having. But it's a debate worth having without ever using the word 'crumbling'."

Read more: https://reason.com/archives/2018/02/09/our-infrastructure-is-not-crumbling-repe
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How regulation doubles infrastructure costs

Get those shovels in the ground - faster to rebuild our infrastructure: George F. Will | PennLive.com:

June 12, 2017 - "Because the inaccurately named Center for American Progress has chosen to defend the impediments that government places in its own path regarding public works, it has done [Philip K.] Howard the favor of rekindling interest in something he wrote in 2015....

"In September 2015, Howard, founder and chair of the reform advocacy group Common Good, published a paper 'Two Years Not Ten Years: Redesigning Infrastructure Approvals.'

"In it, he argued that

America could modernize its infrastructure, at half the cost, while dramatically enhancing environmental benefits, with a two-year approval process. Our analysis shows that a six-year delay in starting construction on public projects costs the nation over $3.7 trillion, including the costs of prolonged inefficiencies and unnecessary pollution.

This is more than double the $1.7 trillion needed through the end of this decade to modernize America's infrastructure.

"The nation that built the Empire State Building in 410 days during the Depression and the Pentagon in 16 months during wartime recently took nine years just for the permitting of a San Diego desalination plant.

"Five years and 20,000 pages of environmental assessments and permitting and regulatory materials were consumed before beginning to raise the roadway on New Jersey's Bayonne Bridge, a project with, as Howard says, 'virtually no environmental impact (it uses existing foundations and right-of-way).' Fourteen years were devoted to the environmental review for dredging the Port of Savannah....

"In 2011, shippers using the inland waterway system of canals, dams and locks endured delays amounting to 25 years. In 2012, the Treasury Department estimated that traffic congestion wasted 1.9 billion gallons of gasoline annually. Diverting freight to trucks because of insufficient railway capacity quadruples fuel consumption....

"Twenty months after Howard published his article, the CAP's response shows how far we have defined efficiency down: It celebrates the fact that federal environmental statements average only 4.6 years.

"Actually, that would be bad enough if such reviews were all or even most of the problem. Actually, there are other kinds of reviews and other layers of government involved, as with the Bayonne Bridge – 47 permits from 19 federal, state and local agencies."

Read more: http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2017/06/get_those_shovels_in_the_groun.html
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The libertarian way to improve airports

A libertarian plan to improve our airports | Rare - Jillian Lane Wyant:

January 25, 2017 - "President Trump has promised to add a plan to improve American airports to his infrastructure proposal. Libertarian minded citizens are looking to Washington to both improve our airports by decentralizing control of airports, relying more on user fees and respecting travelers’ privacy rights....

"Americans have felt helpless as we’ve watched the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) physically and clumsily invade our personal privacy at the airport and the privacy of those around us. All while they continue to miss glaring red flags....

"Just last month, while in the Fort Lauderdale airport — two days before the terrorist attack on the airport, killing five people — the TSA stopped me due to the fact that the book in my purse was 'too thick and needed further inspection.' The man behind me in line laughed, as he overheard, and informed me he was carrying fireworks in his bag that the TSA had not detected. The self-righteous libertarian in me nearly imploded. This is not an isolated incident, this is a daily and possible deadly occurrence....

"Currently, libertarians are concerned with the amount that taxpayers are going be forced to foot the bill of when it comes to Trump’s infrastructure plan to rebuild America’s airports, roads, and bridges. The fiscally-conservative libertarian favors user-fees, as well as devolving the federal responsibilities over the airports and roads to local control.

"While of course, the first thing that Congress should undertake to fix when dealing with the airports is fixing the overzealous and egregiously expensive screening administered by TSA.... Over the last eight years, we have heard time and time again that the TSA is not doing an exemplary job of screening passengers, yet they continue to employ over 44,000 security officers. The TSA’s sole job is to intercept items that could cause a security threat, yet ... anybody who has traveled in the past few months feels violated every time they pass through security as attacks on airports continue to occur.

"As for the funding of infrastructure improvements, the Cato Institute is promoting the libertarian idea of 'Privatizing U.S. Airports.' Robert W. Poole Jr. and Chris Edwards make the case for a reduction in 'federal intervention' and a push toward a 'greater reliance on the private sector to fund, own, and operate the nation’s infrastructure." These are consistent with libertarian ideas that promote safety and peace-of-mind for travelers alike. Libertarians would like to dismantle the high federal taxes imposed on air travel that is used to improve airports; and allow local airports to collect fees to improve infrastructure on their own.

"Libertarians need to look to the members of the House Transportation Committee like Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Mark Sanford (R-SC) who can guide the legislation in the direction of decentralization and to get the federal government out of the business of treating all Americans as if they are terrorists.... Liberty based ideas that promoted decentralization and a less invasive taxes and security checks could make air travel great again."

Read more: http://rare.us/rare-politics/rare-liberty/a-libertarian-plan-to-improve-our-airports/
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LP: Cut government waste to fund infrastructure repair

Libertarian Party: Cut government waste to fix dangerous bridges - Your Houston News: Opinion:

May 24, 2013 - "In the wake of the dramatic collapse of the Interstate 5 bridge in Mount Vernon, Wash., on May 23, federal and state politicians will make their usual claims that ever-higher government spending is needed — funded by more taxpayer dollars and more deficit spending — to fix the country’s roads in need of repair.

"But it’s a fraud. More money is not the answer. Much lower total government spending is.

"The first step is to open the government’s books to learn how those federal and state government politicians are spending the trillions of dollars they already collect and spend every year.

"'Don’t be surprised to learn that, in most states, less than 2 percent of state government spending goes toward building, fixing, or maintaining roadways,' said Libertarian National Committee Executive Director Carla Howell."

Read more: http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/atascocita/opinion/libertarian-party-cut-government-waste-to-fix-dangerous-bridges/article_5b738d90-022f-522b-8168-173b633bb223.html
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