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Department of National Defence employees who used to work at the Louis St. Laurent building should be preparing for the long haul to be at their temporary office locations. It does not appear they will be going back into the Louis St. Laurent building any time soon.

A fire broke out in the building April 21, forcing the shutdown of the facility and the need to find new offices for the 1,800 DND and Canadian Forces staff who worked there. Some 1,400 staff are now spread across Ottawa and Gatineau at different office locations, while another 400 continue to work from home.

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Accessing government files still left in the building at 555 Boul. de la Carrière has been a problem, according to a DND document leaked to the Citizen. Most of the files have to do with military procurement and many of the employees worked in the DND materiel branch.

So what has to be done before staff can go back to work in the building? First DND and Public Services and Procurement Canada have to come up with a plan on how to proceed regarding the six-storey facility. A report outlining options is expected to be delivered next week.

Then the debris from the fire has to be cleaned up. The government estimates that could take between two to four months. Then the damaged fifth and six floors have to be repaired.

No one knows how long this will take but employees are settling in at their new locations for the long haul.