每日跟讀#499: Justin Trudeau’s Official Home: Unfit for a Leader or Anyone Else

At Canada’s official residence for its prime minister, security cameras keep silent watch over the fences, visitors pass through gates that can block truck bombs and a detail of uniformed Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers patrol day and night.

在加拿大總理官邸，監視器靜靜盯著圍籬，遊客從能阻擋卡車炸彈的大門前經過，一隊穿制服的加拿大皇家騎警日夜巡邏。

But the prime minister himself is unlikely to be found inside.

但總理本人不太可能在裡面。

When Justin Trudeau became prime minister three years ago, he took a pass on moving his family into the official residence at 24 Sussex Drive, built in 1868 by an American-born lumber baron. Decades of neglect had turned Canada’s top political address into its most famous home renovation project.

這座官邸1868年由一名在美國出生的木材大亨建造，位於（渥太華市）薩塞克斯街24號，杜魯多三年前當上總理時拒絕全家遷入。加拿大最高階政治人物的居所由於數十年疏於維護，變成了最受矚目的住家修繕案。

But no recent prime ministers have been willing to commit the tens of millions of dollars it would take to make the stone house habitable again. It would look as if they were spending money on themselves, a politically toxic step in Canada.

不過，最近幾位總理沒有一位願意投入預計需要的數千萬美元，讓這座石頭宅邸再次適合住人。那看起來會像把公帑花在自己身上，在加拿大勢必惹來政治風波。

Trudeau, 46, who lived at 24 Sussex as a child when his father was prime minister, is no exception.

現46歲的杜魯多也不例外。他幼年父親當總理時住過薩塞克斯街24號。

“No prime minister wants to spend a penny of taxpayer dollars on upkeeping that house,” Trudeau told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. earlier this year.

杜魯多今年稍早對加拿大廣播公司說：「沒有一位總理會為了修理那棟房子，花掉納稅人任何一分錢。」

There was little criticism of Trudeau’s decision to live with his wife and their three children in Rideau Cottage, a relatively modest, two-story red brick house behind Rideau Hall, the house of Canada’s governor general who fulfills Queen Elizabeth II’s duties as head of state.

杜魯多與妻子和三個孩子住在麗都別墅，這是一幢相對平實的兩層樓紅磚建築，坐落在加拿大總督府後方。加拿大總督代表英國女王伊麗莎白二世行使國家元首的職權。杜魯多的決定幾乎無人批評。

That is because the official residence’s deteriorating condition is no secret to Canadians, with government reports documenting its decline for more than a decade.

這是因為總理官邸破敗對加拿大人並不是秘密，十幾年來政府報告詳細記錄了官邸的衰敗。

Those reports make grim reading for anyone but a contractor hoping to land the renovation job.

報告內容對任何人來說都不是好消息，除了想接整修工程的包商以外。

“The building systems at 24 Sussex have reached the point of imminent or actual failure,” one report, by the National Capital Commission, the federal agency that manages official residences, found this year. It rated the residence’s condition as “critical.”

負責管理官邸的聯邦機構「國家首府委員會」今年在報告中指出：「薩塞克斯街24號的建築體系即將或已經崩壞。」報告將官邸的情形評定為「危險級」。

Its wiring, according to the report, has become a fire hazard; the boiler is obsolete; the exterior stonework is crumbling; and the plumbing blocks up regularly.

報告顯示，官邸的線路系統有走火之虞，供應暖氣和熱水的鍋爐老舊過時，外牆石造部分正在崩解剝落，而且水管經常阻塞。

The building by a pool added by Trudeau’s father is “rotting,” the report said, and air-conditioning comes from inefficient window units that could make it easy for intruders to slip in. Many of those windows need replacement anyway. Everywhere there is asbestos.

報告說，這座杜魯多父親在旁邊新添一個水池的建物正在「腐壞」，而且空氣調節仰賴效率低的窗型冷氣，讓人很容易溜進去。許多裝了窗型冷氣的窗戶都該換了。到處都有石棉。

On top of all that, the house is ill-suited for official functions. Among the house’s many deficiencies, “the dining room is at the same time too large for a family and too small for state dinners,” the report said.

更重要的是，這間房子不適合官式活動。報告說，這房子有諸多缺點，包括「餐廳對一個家庭來說太大，辦國宴卻太小」。

The current cost estimate to deal with everything (excluding security upgrades): 38 million Canadian dollars ($28.7 million).

目前估計，解決所有問題但不包括安全設備升級的費用是3800萬加拿大元（2870萬美元，約台幣8.6億元）。

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/334262/web/

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