Access Canberra's workplace protection director Greg Jones told the Estimates committee the last bits of scaffolding were being removed from the shops on Friday, after more than a year of asbestos removal, environmental cleaning and remedial works on the roof.

The building that houses Edgar's pub is the only known building in Canberra where the loose-fill asbestos remained in situ after a Commonwealth clean-up in the 1980s.

Last March it was discovered the asbestos had migrated into the ceiling of the neighbouring building. A positive sample was also returned from the building next to that.

The in-situ asbestos was finally cleared last October.

"More recently a hygienic cleansing occurred by licensed removalists with the small amount of loose-fill asbestos that had migrated into the ceiling cavity of units 3 and 5, that has now been completed," Mr Jones said.

"There have been some structural issues with the roof over units 3 and 5 and again through a period of negotiation with WorkSafe, Heritage and the various owners, an arrangement was made where the owners had collectively come up with a plan which was endorsed by WorkSafe to replace the roof at the same time as hygienically cleansing the roof cavity space, and they took the opportunity to do some remedial work on that roof in terms of electrical guttering, eaves, that sort of thing."

With that work now complete, Mr Jones told the hearing he was expecting a clearance certificate to come through soon.

"Then we will negotiate with the owners of unit 1 for the lift of our long standing prohibition notice on the upstairs area of unit 1 for occupancy with a continued ongoing asbestos management plan for those units. So pretty well as long as it goes well today and weather permitting, Ainslie shops will be pretty much back to normal as of this week."

However the government says the building will still have to be demolished in the long term.

Mr Jones said there was no firm timeframe for the demolition, and they would be guided first by six-monthly then likely yearly asbestos assessments.

Canberra Liberals MLA Andrew Wall asked why the shops were allowed to stand indefinitely while people who had Fluffy asbestos in their homes once had to surrender their homes for demolition.

"I don’t think there is any inconsistency. The ability to occupy [a property with an] asbestos management plan for a short to medium term is consistent," Mr Jones said.

Mr Wall asked what he considered short to medium term.

"Look that depends on the particular property. It’s the state of the property. Without the remedial work done on the roof at Ainslie, that short to medium term I would imagine would have only been a couple of years," Mr Jones said.

"With the structural work that’s been done that short to medium term could be five years, could be longer. That will depend on the expert advice that we’ll get from the assessor with the ongoing monitoring."