OTTAWA -- A new Ottawa office building is to be named in honour of former finance minister Jim Flaherty, who died last April.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the 17-storey James Michael Flaherty Building will include a memorial plaque in the lobby.
The building is on Elgin Street, just two blocks from the National Arts Centre and the National War Memorial.
The tower, which was completed in the summer, is to house about 2,600 public servants from the Finance Department and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
Flaherty was finance minister from February 2006 until March 2014.
He was widely credited with steering the country through the recession of 2008-09.
Harper, who was visibly grief-stricken when Flaherty died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 64, says naming the Finance Department building for his former colleague is a fitting tribute.
"Jim will be remembered as one of the best ministers of finance in the history of Canada," Harper said in a statement. "He dedicated the last years of his life to one of his greatest passions: ensuring the economic well-being of Canadians."
