Uganda furious over decision stopping them from demolishing dilapidated building in Canada
The Uganda High Commissioner in Canada has expressed concern over a decision by authorities in Ottawa stopping them from demolishing a dilapidated building.
According to Canada’s CBC news, the two-storey building on Cobourg Street owned by the Ugandan government housed the country's high commission to Canada from 1985 until 2014 when it was declared unsafe.
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It is said that the Ugandan government had finalised plans to demolish the building and construct a new one but on Thursday, Ottawa’s built heritage sub-committee stopped the plans despite an earlier go ahead by the city’s professional heritage planners and a third party engineering firm that had concluded that the building was not worth repairing.
However, according to Joy Acheng, the Ugandan High Commissioner in Ottawa, it is appalling that the city’s built heritage committee stopped the demolition.
“It does not enhance the good bilateral relationship between Uganda and Canada,”Acheng said.
“The building has cracks from the foundation up to the roof and you start saying that we renovate.”
The Ugandan consulate said the committee members were very unfair for ignoring the technical report that recommended for a demolition.
The building was once the home of former Canadian prime minister Lester B. Pearson, who resided there in 1957, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his role in the development of the UN's peacekeeping force.
