modern wing. In 2003, British architect Edward Jones of London’s Dixon Jones, Steven Teeple and Chris Radigan of Toronto's Teeple Architects, and Ottawa architect David Cole won a competition to design the new Portrait Gallery of Canada. Their proposal was to house the LAC’s permanent collection of portraits in the former embassy building and to showcase temporary exhibitions in a new addition. Included in the design were administrative facilities, restoration laboratories, a lecture theatre and a rooftop café overlooking Parliament Hill. Originally projected to cost $22 million, demolition costs, which included the removal and disposal of the electrical and mechanical system, wall partitions, and carcinogenic asbestos insulation, caused the budget to increase to $45 million. These issues caused the museum’s anticipated 2006 opening to be delayed until at least 2007. In 2006, despite five years of planning and $11 million dollars already invested in the project, the Government of Canada, under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, stopped further work on the building, citing escalating costs. In November 2007, the Government of Canada announced a new competition. The government invited private developers from Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver to submit proposals for a public-private partnership to build a new Portrait Gallery of Canada in their respective cities. The plan was to have the new museum built by 2012. In 2008, Senator Jerry Grafstein introduced a private member’s bill in the Senate of Canada (S-233) An Act to amend the Library and Archives of Canada Act (National Portrait Gallery) in order to establish a permanent display in Ottawa for portraits from the LAC's collection. The proposal was to return to the original 2001 idea of hosting the collection at the former U.S. embassy. Although the Senator reintroduced the bill (S-201) in 2009, the Senate did not pass it. On Friday, November 7, 2008, the Government of Canada announced that its plans to select a new site for the Portrait Gallery of Canada based on proposals submitted by developers was cancelled. “In this time of global economic instability, it is important that the federal government continue to manage its own affairs prudently and pragmatically,” stated Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore in a media release. “The selection process failed to meet the best interests of both the Portrait Gallery and taxpayers.” In 2009, the Government of Canada cancelled all plans to create a new portrait