$1.5M Sudbury federal building facelift underway, over 2 years after scaffolding went up

Construction is now underway at the federal office building in downtown Sudbury, over two years after scaffolding went up.

It was put up to protect the public from pieces of the marble cladding on the outside of the building that have been falling off.

The scaffolding has so far cost Canadian taxpayers $920,000, which isn't included in the $1.5 million cost for the facelift of the federal building.

Jeremy Link, a senior communications advisor with Public Service and Procurement Canada, says there was a delay while the government decided how to resurface the outside of the building.

"We wanted to make sure we got it right, so we did in fact go back and look at some of the cladding systems and the support structure, in order to have the right method forward that we eventually chose," he says.

The office building, which houses Canada Post and Service Canada among others, was built in 1957 and refurbished in 2001.

Link says it is old enough to be considered a "heritage" building by the federal government, which will be taken account in the design of the re-cladding, expected to be complete by the end of the year.