‘Weird’-looking Senate carpet cost $7,000 to replace (twice)

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Staff for a recently appointed independent senator requested a new carpet and then had it torn out and replaced for a cost of nearly $7,000 because it was the wrong colour and looked "weird."

Ontario Senator Lucie Moncion, who was named to the Senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November of 2016, said the new carpet installed in a staff member's office this summer was not done "properly" and needed to be replaced.

The problem, it turns out, was that the new carpet was beige instead of red – even though both are standard Senate colours.

"If you're in your home and you ask for a carpet, and it's the wrong one that they put in, what do you do?" Ms. Moncion told The Globe and Mail.

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"Whenever work is not done properly, you redo the work. It's going to be the same in your job, it's going to be the same in any job."

When asked if replacing a newly installed carpet was a justified use of public resources, Ms. Moncion, the former president and CEO of a network of Ontario credit unions, replied: "I don't know. I have no idea. I have no idea how it's done at the Senate."

The new beige carpet cost $2,720 and another $1,567 for the work to remove the old carpet and install the new one, for a total of $4,287, Public Services and Procurement Canada said. The replacement red carpet cost $2,700 including installation, and was paid for by the Senate's tenant services, which takes care of some office needs for senators. In total, the cost to replace the old carpet, twice, was $6,987. (It is not clear why the beige carpet was more expensive.)

The original request for a new carpet came from Ms. Moncion's office, Senate spokeswoman Alison Korn said.

Tenant services then made the request to Public Services, which is responsible for the upkeep of Parliamentary buildings. The department inspected the old carpet and determined it should be replaced.

After initially suggesting Public Services was responsible for the installation of the incorrect carpet, Ms. Korn later said an error was made in the Senate when ordering the colour.

"Senator Moncion's office was offered a choice between red or beige (Senate standard). They chose red but there was a mix up in relaying that information to Public Works," Ms. Korn said in an e-mail.

"As a result, the beige carpet was installed."

The department said it was the Senate's decision to have it removed. "The Senate provided the requirements for the new carpet based on their standards and requested that a beige carpet be installed," spokesman Pierre-Alain Bujold said in an e-mail.

"After the beige carpet was installed, the Senate decided to replace the carpet with a new one of a different colour."

The carpet was in the office of Louise Mercier, Ms. Moncion's parliamentary affairs adviser, in the Victoria Building across the street from Parliament Hill.

Ms. Mercier initially requested a red carpet, the same as the old one, said Ms. Moncion's executive assistant, Sam Lafontaine. The work was then approved by Public Services, formerly called Public Works, which agreed "that its age and condition merited replacement."

But the department installed the beige carpet, Mr. Lafontaine said, which is the same colour as the carpet in Ms. Moncion's office.

"When they renovate the office for you, they ask what colour you want. And [Ms. Mercier] said, 'Well it's red, so can I have it red.' And they put beige," Mr. Lafontaine said.

"Then it was weird … because there was, like, one stripe of red, and then the rest was beige. So there was two different colours.

"It's kind of odd."

Ms. Korn said the Senate is seeking reimbursement of the $2,700 from Public Services because the beige carpet can be used elsewhere in the Victoria Building.

The department said it is working with the Senate to find another location, but did not say it would reimburse the Senate for the cost of the red carpet.