The main floor of city hall is a public space, with an event venue, art gallery, café and, most importantly, the combined Ottawa Client Services/Service Ontario outlet. It also provides access to city hall’s underground parking garage.

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As a university student back in the 1980s, I worked for a local Ottawa company that produced calendars for the tourist market. On one occasion, I was sent out to make a delivery to the parliamentary gift shop. Much to my surprise, this involved simply driving onto Parliament Hill and parking, unloading my hand cart and boxes, telling a commissionaire what I was there for and being given instructions on how to find my way through the underground corridors to the shop warehouse. No gates to drive through. No metal detectors. No escort.

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Similarly, years later when I worked for Transport Canada in Place de Ville Tower C, it was........

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