Alberta will spend $57M on new Court of Appeal building, incorporating century-old facility
Court adjudicates 700 matters each year
Alberta will spend $57.3 million to build a new Court of Appeal in Calgary.
The current 107-year-old facility will be preserved, restored and incorporated into the new building.
Court of Appeal has operated out of leased space in TransCanada Tower and the Courts Centre since 2003, when the historic facility, located across the street from the Courts Centre at Seventh Avenue and Fifth Street S.W., was forced to close due to environmental issues like asbestos.
Justice Minister Kaycee Madu said for a court that adjudicates 700 matters a year, the situation had become increasingly untenable.
"Some justices and staff desperately needed a functional, easily accessible facility, one in which they may perform their important work and adjudicate important cases as efficiently as possible without constantly having to shuttle back and forth between buildings," he said.
The Court of Appeal building is the largest surviving courthouse from Alberta's first decade as a province, according to Canada's register of historic places, and the last major building in the city to be built with local sandstone.
The project is expected to support about 570 construction jobs.