The Chateau Laurier Hotel.

Why an extension will never be constructed behind the hotel. 1.)  The new addition will encroach upon a 30 metre/98 foot buffer zone. The adjacent Rideau Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and World Heritage sites have a 30-metre buffer zone:

House of Commons Debates  Ottawa  July 6, 1908. Grand Trunk Railway Hotel Site. Mr. William Pugsley (Minister of Public Works) Liberal. "Apart from the towers, the height will be about 100 feet. There are to be five floors above ground...The land extends 285 feet on the canal basin and 135 feet on Rideau Street...Extending from the side of the canal, at the rear, the land is 66 feet in width. Then it extends parallel to the canal basin 205 feet 3 inches and then running parallel to Rideau Street 86 feet 6 inches...there is to be a subway running from the station into the basement of the hotel."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   "Generally, new development must be set back a minimum 30 metres from the shoreline. This aligns with the 30 metre buffer zone extending from the boundary of the Rideau Canal World Heritage Site." (Parks Canada - Rideau Canal National Historic Site Principles for good waterfront development - Part 5 ---Locate development back from the shoreline.) 66 feet equals 20 metres. The setback has to be 30 metres or 98 feet.

2.)  Senate Bill S-203 prohibits the construction of new buildings within a 500-metre buffer zone of National Historic Sites of Canada, that are located within the National Capital Region. The Chateau Laurier and the Rideau Canal are National Historic Sites.

3.) Major's Hill Park and the hotel grounds were extensions of Parliament Hill:

House of Commons Debates  Ottawa July 6, 1908.  Mr. Robert Laird Borden (Leader of the Official Opposition). "This hotel will be thrust into the midst of the government buildings and parliament grounds...We take this national property immediately contigious to and indeed forming part of the grounds of this parliament."

4.)  The Rideau Canal may lose UNESCO designation:  UNESCO WANTS CHATEAU HOTEL ADDITION REASSESSED "BEFORE ANY IRREVOCABLE DECISIONS ARE MADE." Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen newspaper, Feb. 12, 2020. "UNESCO warns that the planned addition to the Chateau Laurier could damage the 'viewscape' and the overall value of the Rideau Canal which is a World Heritage Site."

The United Nations agency is also evaluating the impact of several other developments adjacent to the waterway:

(1) Various Federal Infrastructure Investment Program projects along the length of the Rideau Canal World Heritage Site.

(2) Rideau Canal Crossing pedestrian bridge. (Ottawa.)

(3) Chateau Laurier proposed expansion. (Ottawa.)

(4) Highway 417 Bridge rehabilitation. (Ottawa.)

(5) Third Bridge Crossing (Kingston.)

(6) Rideau Marina (Kingston.)

(7) Former Davis Tannery Brownfield Site Redevelopment (Kingston.)

(8) New Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus (Ottawa.)

Google: "May 2018 State of Conservation Report, Rideau Canal" and go to "November 24, 2019."

 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was quite fond of the hotel---he lived there during the 1960's; refused to sell it to Hilton; and the Canada Pavilion at Epcot Center in Orlando Florida is a replica of the Chateau.