Thanks very much for the question.
Lessons learned are really at the core of the methodology that we undertake within the precinct and the broader department. We have a searchable database for lessons learned that all project managers have to use. Certainly, many were pulled from the West Block and are being applied to the Centre Block rehabilitation project. I'll mention a few really important ones.
The first one is a detailed assessment and investigation program. With heritage buildings, among the biggest risks are the unknown conditions. What are you going to find behind the walls? For Centre Block and the Parliament welcome centre, we did the most exhaustive assessment or investigation program that we've ever undertaken. I would say that it's paid off, whereas in the West Block we had an estimate of the amount of asbestos-containing material that was quite high, but we ran into a lot more. We had an estimate of the condition of the structural elements within the building, but it was much worse than we anticipated. With the very detailed assessment that we've done on Centre Block, we've run into very few surprises and very few key risks that we didn't anticipate.
I would say the biggest surprise, which we found quite early on in the project, was that the foundation of the east side of Centre Block, the Senate side, was not a modern foundation. It was more of a rubble core. We addressed that within the contingencies of the project. We essentially put a sandwich of cement around that and tied it together with steel. It was stabilized and we were able to move on until we can put a modern foundation there in the future. That's really been the biggest surprise so far.
There are a couple of other elements that are really important. One is carrying out activities in parallel, rather than in sequence. The Auditor General's report mentions these flexible approaches. That really comes from the experiences of previous projects. In some cases, it makes sense to be doing the design and the construction in parallel. For example, the interior demolition and abatement, the removal of the asbestos-containing material and the excavation for the Parliament welcome centre were not dependent on a lot of functional requirement decisions from Parliament or design elements. We were able to proceed with that important construction activity, which got it out of the way and de-risked the project.
Another thing to mention would be mock-ups. These are very important. We'll be engaging Parliament, hopefully soon, on determining design mock-ups for offices for parliamentarians, as well as for the seating in the House chamber, given that the size of the chamber has not grown and the number of MPs has grown significantly since Centre Block was originally constructed. We really need to work hand in hand with members to design a new seating arrangement in the House, which potentially could be phased in over time. That's going to take work with Parliament.
Perhaps the last one I'll mention is advance testing. This is linked to mock-ups. Certainly the operations of Parliament are increasingly digitally enabled, for example. We want to ensure that all of the testing has been done well in advance, before things go live. This is a no-fail environment. That's critically important.
There's a range of other elements. For example, doors in these facilities are not simple doors. They're essentially parts of a hardware and software system, which are integrated into a security system. Everything has to work perfectly for the doors to work. They're linked to video cameras, etc.
Advance testing on many of the elements is critical to ensuring that Parliament will work for you.