OTTAWA – MPs are summoning top government officials and Canada’s Consul General in New York to explain the decision by Global Affairs Canada to buy a $9-million luxury condo on Manhattan’s “Billionaires’ Row.” MPs of all political stripes on the Commons Government Operations committee Wednesday agreed to summon Tom Clark, as well as top diplomatic, procurement and Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) officials to justify the purchase of the luxury condo as the new official residence for Canada’s Consul General in the city. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly will also be required to testify if the committee deems it necessary during three meetings in late August.
The new condo is in Steinway Tower, the world’s thinnest skyscraper, located just south of Central Park on a stretch known colloquially as “Billionaire’s Row” for the price and luxury of real estate there. A listing for the new unit shows it has three bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms, as well as a wet bar, a powder room finished in jewel onyx and — as Canadian officials ramp up their entreaties ahead of the upcoming U.S.
election — plenty of space for entertaining. GAC has said that the new purchase was required because the existing residence, located at 550 Park Ave., hasn’t been refurbished since 1982 and bringing it back to department standards would cost too much.
It has so far refused to share the estimated cost of those renovations and has claimed that the purchase presents the.