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Heat and Light

Photograph of Parliament Buildings under construction, August or September 1863
Source

Photograph of book, RAPPORT DE LA COMMISSION NOMMÉE POUR S'ENQUÉRIR DES MATIÈRES RELATIVES AUX ÉDIFICES PUBLICS À OTTAWA, published in 1863

Rapport de la Commission nommée pour s'enquérir des matières relatives aux édifices publics à Ottawa, 1863
Source

In this section:

Construction, maintenance and the technological improvement of Canada's Parliament Buildings were the subjects of orders-in-council for many years after the government moved from Québec City to Ottawa in 1865. In November 1867, Member of Parliament Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1825-1868) compared Canada's cultural development to one of the engineering challenges faced in the seat of Parliament:

“When the Parliamentary buildings were finished at Ottawa, one of the first problems was to regulate the heating apparatus, in short, to make them habitable for half the year; and this precisely is the problem with us in relation to another and equally necessary kind of plenishing and furnishing, for town and country. It remains for us to learn whether we have the internal heat and light” — (Montreal Gazette, November 5, 1867, p. 1).

The order-in-council represented here demonstrates the attention prominent legislators gave to the installation of innovative technology such as "telephonic service."