Parliament Building (Quebec)
The Parliament Building of Quebec is an eight-floor structure and is home to the National Assembly of Quebec, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The Parliament Building was designed by architect Eugène-Étienne Taché in a Second Empire style and built between 1877 and 1886, in the heart of Quebec's Parliament Hill. The National Assembly first met there on March 27, 1884, even though the building was only fully completed two years later, on April 8, 1886. From the 1910s to the 1930s, the government built several adjacent buildings to expand its office spaces, creating a parliamentary complex, of which the Parliament Building is the main edifice. This structure is a successor of several earlier buildings, the earliest of which was built in 1620 and among which there were two other parliament houses that served as legislatures.
Geographically, the building is in the i=no, in the district of Vieux-Québec–Cap-Blanc–colline Parlementaire, part of the borough of La Cité-Limoilou, just outside the walls of Old Quebec. However, the Parliament Building, along with several adjacent buildings and terrain, have been declared a national historic site, and as such taken away from the control of the provincial Ministry of Culture and Communications and municipalities. This designation notwithstanding, the province of Quebec is signatory to a long-term leasing deal when it comes to the territory in front of the Parliament Building, that is, from the front entrance to the fortifications of the old town, as this parcel has belonged to the federal government since 1881.
History
Precursors
Fort and château Saint-Louis
In 1620, Samuel de Champlain was ordered to stop further exploration of New France, of which he was lieutenant governor, and instead was asked to engage solely in administration of the newly discovered lands. He therefore ordered the construction of a fort on Cap Diamant, the easternmost extremity of the Promontory of Quebec. Even as the short-lived governments of the and of the were substituted for a more stable Company of One Hundred Associates in 1627, it was not until 1648 that the one-storey Château St. Louis, built by Governor Charles de Montmagny, became the first permanent official residence of the government of New France. However, by late 1680s, the construction was in a very poor state.A bigger residence on the foundations of the old one was built in 1694 by Governor Frontenac, and was finished thirty years later. The château was damaged during the Seven Years' War, but after some repairs, still remained a residence for government structures of the British administration, until Château Haldimand was built. A large fire destroyed the 1694 building in 1834. The site is today covered by the Terrasse Dufferin, in front of the Château Frontenac.
Château Haldimand
In 1784, the governor of the Province of Quebec, Frederick Haldimand, ordered the construction of a new building, which was completed three years later. It was a residence of the colonial government from 1786 to 1791, and then of the governors only, until 1811. The Château Clique, which had an outsized influence over Quebec's governance, met there regularly with the governor. Château Haldimand was demolished in 1892 to make way for the construction of the Château Frontenac.Old Parliament Building
The Old Parliament Building was built in 1693-1695 by the bishop of the diocese of Quebec, Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, as the seat for the bishopry, and is also therefore known as the Episcopal Palace of Quebec. However, its purpose was changed in 1777, when the government of the province of Quebec started renting the building from the Catholic Church. The Legislative Council, which was a largely advisory body, was seated there.Following the division of the old Province of Quebec into Lower Canada and Upper Canada by the Constitutional Act 1791, Quebec stayed as the capital of Lower Canada. It was at that time that the Canadas first received Westminster-style parliaments. In Lower Canada, the building that hosted the parliament, consisting of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, lower and upper houses respectively, was that building. It also hosted the office of the governor. The first sitting of parliament, after some reconstruction works, took place on December 17, 1792.
The government attempted to gain ownership of the property from the Roman Catholic Church. After several unsuccessful attempts of negotiation with the archbishop, Bernard-Claude Panet, he eventually agreed to transfer the ownership rights in 1831 thus the building became colonial property in August 1832. It was subsequently rebuilt for the expansion of the government offices.
After the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838, the parliament was suspended, and the governor-appointed Special Council sat in Montreal. The Episcopal Palace was then briefly seat of the Parliament of the Province of Canada in 1852–1854, but it was fully destroyed in a fire on February 1, 1854. Other victims were the museum of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec and half of the collection of the parliamentary library. The area that used to be the Episcopal Palace is now part of the Parc Montmorency.
Post office
With the Old Parliament Building destroyed, the legislature was left with no building to operate in. They quickly accepted the offer of the Sisters of Charity to rent their convent as a temporary seat of parliament, but on May 3, 1854, during works on repurposing the building, another fire ruined the new wing of the house they intended to use as a meeting place for the legislature. They afterwards rented a courthouse and a music hall as an emergency solution, until in 1858, the city acquired the land with the ruins of the Old Parliament Building. The proceeds were then used to construct a small building first intended as a post office, but then it was decided to move the legislature and the government in that place. The Canadian legislature presided in the office from 1860 to 1865, and, after Confederation, the provincial parliament occupied the building from 1867 to 1883, when it succumbed to a fire.Construction of the current building
The government sought a bigger place to operate, in one building, thus the government proposed to build a new site in 1869. For this purpose, it bought lands that were occupied by a Jesuit college and demolished it in 1872. It also bought a parcel of land from the federal government in July 1876 for that purpose, and it is on these two lots of land that the new building, which was to host the government, the legislature and the lieutenant governor's office, was constructed.The design works were assigned to Eugène-Étienne Taché, an architect who was then working at the provincial ministry of public works. He chose to build a new seat for government and parliament in a building with a style harkening back to the French Renaissance, instead of the British-style architecture in Ottawa. Due to budget constraints, however, the building's Second Empire architecture was toned down somewhat from what was popular in Paris; it was nevertheless called a "construction of the century", with up to 400 workers employed to erect the seat of parliament.
The building process itself was marred with problems. Simon-Xavier Cimon, the entrepreneur who won the contract to build the Parliament Building, was deeply unpopular. The workers, whose wages went down from 60¢ to 50¢ in 1878, went on strike, demanding they be paid twice the sum. With tensions escalating, the employment of strikebreakers failing and the then Premier of Quebec, Henri-Gustave Joly, attacked on the street, the demonstrations were suppressed by the military in June 1878. In total, three more strikes occurred by the time the whole complex was built. After making minor concessions, the construction continued, so that by 1880, three wings of the building were completed. The legislature still met in the post office building.
The second stage was started in 1883, after the parliament lost its operating space due to a fire, so they temporarily moved to the then-existing rooms of the Parliament Building, displacing some government offices. Members of the Legislature started their first legislative session in the new building on March 27, 1884. The builders also faced other problems in October 1884, a bombing damaged the construction site, and the government also experienced significant cost overruns. Despite that, the main construction was finished in time for the parliamentary session that started on April 8, 1886.
Following inauguration
After its opening, most of the works concerned the decorations of the building and around it. In 1888, a clock at the top of the tower was installed. Two years later, a fountain in front of the entrance, dedicated to the Abenaki, was inaugurated. Four years after that, statues of various political and intellectual figures of importance to Quebec were mounted in niches in the walls of the building.The building initially hosted all major executive and legislative offices of the province of Quebec as well as the parliamentary library. However, by the turn of the century, the government decided to expand their working spaces and moved some of their offices to adjacent structures. The first was Édifice Pamphile-Le May, which was added in 1910–1915 to host the. It was also at that time that a parliamentary restaurant, Le Café du Parlement, was opened in the courtyard. A decade later, the Édifice Honoré-Mercier was built to house several ministries, including the office of premier, which was in the building from its construction until 1972 and from 2002 on. Édifice Jean-Antoine-Panet and Édifice André-Laurendeau were erected in the 1930s, for the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Agriculture, respectively. The latter building is now the main office of the lieutenant-governor.
In 1985, the Parliament Building, along with several adjacent buildings and terrain, were declared a national historic site, and as such taken away from the control of the provincial Ministry of Culture and Communications, and municipalities, to ensure operational independence. This was reaffirmed during changes to the law in 2011, though the term was changed to national heritage site.
In 2016-2019 a new entrance with enhanced security and additional space for parliamentary committees were built for $60.5 million.