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In a conversation with CBC Fredericton’s Information Morning, Margaret Trudeau provided a distinctly more definitive response.

“No, they’re not,” she told the host.

“24 Sussex is in need — has been in need since I was there 40 years ago — of major infrastructure repair, and it simply hasn’t been done.”

Instead, she said, “they’ll live somewhere else while — not decor, not fancy stuff — just plumbing and roofs and all the things that keep a house standing [are repaired].”

And in an interviewwith the Citizen’s Elizabeth Payne this morning, Margaret Trudeau wasn’t as precise as she was during her interview with the CBC.

“I don’t know which residence they are going into. I just know both residences have a few infrastructure problems and need to be fixed up before they can move in,” she said.

Earlier this fall, the Citizen’s Don Butler reported that the NCC was working up a pitch to upgrade five of the six official residences managed by the government — but not 24 Sussex due to long-standing (and understandable) concerns on the part of its occupants that spending one red cent of taxpayer money on a rent-free mansion would be politically dicey.

In 2011, the NCC said 24 Sussex needed $10 million in repairs deemed urgent four years earlier. The work would have required the prime minister and his family to vacate the building for more than a year, but Stephen Harper had declined to move out.