Here are a few excerpts from an article in the Montreal Gazette about the planned upgrades and published at the start of the 2017 race weekend:
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve facilities to get $48-million upgrade by 2019
Jeff Pappone, Special to the Montreal Gazette
Published on: June 8, 2017
...plans to modernize the garage and paddock areas and make them a bit more roomy got stuck in neutral almost as soon as the 2017 completion date was announced two years ago. Along the way, the price tag for the work has jumped from around $30 million to $48 million...
“The Formula One World Championship asked for changes to that plan,” said Noémie Brière-Marquez, a spokesperson for Mayor Denis Coderre.
“The plan was therefore reworked and the budget was modified accordingly to $48 million. We anticipate that the Quebec government will assume the additional costs of $18 million.”
Former Formula One Management (FOM) boss Bernie Ecclestone insisted upon upgrades to the control tower, garages, medical centre and paddock as a condition of a 10-year extension to the Canadian Grand Prix signed in 2014...
...The paddock in Montreal is squeezed between the garage areas behind the pit lane and the Olympic rowing basin, leaving the teams and drivers little elbow room as they go about their business.
...The contract for the race itself was subsequently renegotiated, with five years tacked on to the deal, securing the Canadian Grand Prix to 2029, which included an agreement between the promoter, the city and FOM to delay the renovations by two years.
The previous deal to 2024 committed the municipal, provincial, and federal governments to pitch in a combined $187 million to host the race in Montreal — an average $18.7 million per year — plus the renovations that were to be completed by 2017...