Temporary House of Commons and Senate are now open for tours

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If you thought living through a kitchen renovation was a nightmare, imagine what it must have been like for the people who had to figure out a place to stash more than 400 parliamentarians—and hundreds of staffers—when the federal government decided to renovate the Centre Block on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill.

Unlike the average homeowner, the people on Parliament Hill couldn’t just pack up their dishes and cook on their barbecue for a month while impatiently waiting for the dry-wallers to finish. These renovations are expected to take at least 10 years, so our lawmakers needed some solid real estate to call home for the next decade or so.

With some creative repurposing, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has created two suitably elegant places for MPs and senators to debate legislation. The House of Commons has moved to the West Block, while the Senate has relocated a few blocks east on Wellington Street to the Government Conference Centre, opposite the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel.

Parliament’s new Visitor Welcome Centre

If you’re touring the House of Commons chamber, you’ll start from the new subterranean Visitor Welcome Centre, between the West Block and the Centre Block. Here’s what it looks like from the outside. PSPC did a good job of building an entrance that blends in well with the surrounding buildings.

Be prepared to go through airport-style security when you arrive, including a metal detector for you and an X-ray machine for any bags you might be carrying. Note that only one small bag per person is allowed.

Inside the visitor centre, it’s all curving lines and sleek stone—a much nicer introduction to Canada’s governmental buildings than the cramped hallway where visitors have been entering the Centre Block in recent years.

Light falls into the space from windows high above the main lobby.

While you’re waiting for your tour, you can hit the well-stocked gift shop for souvenirs with a governmental twist, such as corkscrews and playing cards emblazoned with images of Parliament Hill.

Canada’s House of Commons moves to a courtyard

From the welcome centre, your guide will take you down a long hallway to the West Block, where the star attraction is the new House of Commons chamber, cleverly fitted into a former open-air courtyard. The courtyard has been enclosed by the four wings of the West Block since 1909, and those exterior walls are now interior ones.

The whole shebang has been covered with a glass roof supported by huge metal buttresses. Louvres on the roof control how much light enters the chamber—a concern for TV crews in particular, our guide Pierre-Luc Gagné explained.

The iconic green-upholstered House of Commons chairs are now arrayed in a chamber that’s similar to the historic room in the Centre Block, down to the thick gold curtains and wood accents. “The first thing that grabs my attention is how little it has changed,” said Gagné. The average viewer watching Question Period on CPAC, he said, “would not realize the House of Commons has moved.”

(Do you agree? Here’s a photo of the House of Commons chamber in the Centre Block, taken in December 2018, after the furniture had been removed for the move.)

And here’s the new chamber.

However, there are some notable differences. Most strikingly, the walnut panelling behind the Speaker’s chair and elsewhere is decorated with eye-catching wooden fretwork designed to invite interpretation. “People see all sorts of things in them: hockey sticks, wheat, snowshoes…fish bones….and that’s by design,” Gagné said, explaining that the architects didn’t want to impose one visual interpretation of “Canada.”

National artefacts also make the move

In the Centre Block, sober portraits of former prime ministers lined various hallways and lobbies. They have made the move to the West Block as well. Some of the more recent ones dangle from modern metal structures at the back of the House of Commons chamber, while others hang in the House of Commons lobby in their huge vintage frames.

The Books of Remembrance, which record the name of members of the Canadian military who have died in the service of our country, have also been moved to the West Block from their usual place in the Memorial Chamber at the base of the Peace Tower.

Gagné, our guide, was careful to explain that their temporary home is not called a “memorial chamber.” Instead, the tranquil room—dimly lit by star-like ceiling fixtures—is called simply the Books of Remembrance Room. The beautifully calligraphed books were moved to the room during a ceremony in early February. As before, each book is opened to a new page each day. Veterans Affairs Canada has a search engine where you can find out when a loved one’s name will be displayed.

Canada’s Senate moves to a former train station

If you want to tour the Senate, you don’t have to start at the Visitor Welcome Centre; you can go straight to the Senate building.

Unlike the House of Commons, the Senate has been moved off Parliament Hill entirely. That means the Senate tour offers a bonus: the chance to peek behind the massive Beaux-Arts columns of Ottawa’s former train station, opposite the Chateau Laurier.

The building has served as a government conference centre for years, so opportunities for the general public to see inside were rare. It’s a bit of a shock to realize this gorgeous space—with its vast domed ceiling decorated with intricate plasterwork, and its huge arched windows flooding the space with light—has been lurking in the shadow of the Rideau Centre all these years.

Like the Senate chamber in the Centre Block, this temporary home to 105 senators is decorated in deep red shades. Here, for reference, is a photo of the Centre Block’s Senate chamber, from December 2018. (Again, this is after all the furniture had been taken out.)

The eight huge paintings depicting scenes from the First World War did not make the move to the Government Conference Centre. They’re going to be cleaned and restored during the renovations.

And here are the Senate’s new temporary digs. Note that the Speaker’s chair and the throne for the Governor General were still to be installed when I visited.

New to the décor are the images of maple leaves everywhere, including those woven into the carpet and embossed in the glass of the entrance doors. (Side note: Did you know that there are roughly a dozen types of maple trees native to Canada? All of them are represented here.)

If you’re visiting either chamber to see parliamentarians in action and you remember the small, hard chairs from the Centre Block public galleries, you’ll be pleased to know that the chairs here are all new and quite cushy. Visitors with mobility impairments have accessible seats, too. One drawback is that, due to space limitations, the public galleries are smaller than their Centre Block counterparts.

It’s easy to book your free tour online. You can also take your chances and buy tickets at the Visitor Welcome Centre (for either building) or at the Senate (for that building only). Tours aren’t offered when the House and Senate are sitting.

To watch debates and Question Period, you can just walk in and ask for a seat; they’re available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you want to make sure a seat will be available for you on the day you plan to go, you can also request one in advance through your member of Parliament.

Disclosure: I toured the new House of Commons and Senate chambers as a guest of the Parliament Hill Visitor Welcome Centre and Ottawa Tourism, neither of which reviewed or approved this post. All opinions are my own.

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As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.