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It is time for the Ford government to be honest with the public about the disaster that is the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
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The new documents, first reported by the CBC, show that the cost of Crosstown has risen from $11.8 billion to $12.8 billion and the project is still unfinished. In fact, the quote that is creating a lot of controversy is that there is a “lack of a credible plan” to finish the project.
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This clearly upsets residents and small business owners in the area who have experienced years of delays and incompetence on this project. It renewed calls for a public inquiry from councilors such as Joshn Matlow and Mike Colle.
Matlow uses the failures of this project to continue his push against the idea of P3 or public-private-partnerships. He is ideologically opposed to this type of project even though we have seen successful ones elsewhere just as we have seen successful projects run by government agencies and utter disasters.
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The key is good management regardless of the style of project and this one appears to have bad management all around. Although the Ford government rejects the idea of a public inquiry without also going public with what is causing the endless delay. They just want to blame the Wynne Liberals, who are pretty cheap after more than four years in power.
Not that there isn’t plenty of blame to be directed that way.
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The project was first conceived in 2007 and excavation began more than a decade ago in 2011. It was supposed to be completed by 2020 but there were many problems along the way that caused delays.
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Even though many of those problems started under the Liberals, Ford should have cleaned up the mess by now.
One of the main consultants on this project is a man named Brian Guest. As we found out at the Ottawa LRT inquiry, Guest was someone with little transit experience, and no experience building P3s, when he helped lead that project in the nation’s capital.
The visitor became a man described as an “LRT super consultant” even though the two projects he is best known for – Ottawa and the Crosstown – were not delivered as promised. He ended his direct involvement with Metrolinx earlier this year after some controversy surrounding contracts and executive titles he was given but his company, Boxfish Group, continues to act as a consulting agency to Metrolinx.
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The head of Metrolinx, Phil Verster, came to his job running the massive transit system in 2017 just months after resigning from a top job running Scot Rail. After two years of poor performance running the smaller Scottish system, Verster left amid controversy in January 2017 but was hired by the Wynne government in August.
“It’s very important for Metrolinx to have leadership experience,” transportation minister Steven Del Duca said at the time of Verster’s appointment.
Verster brings experience, but whether that’s good experience is debatable.
Beyond the problems with Metrolinx, there were problems with Crosslinx, the consortium awarded the contract for the construction and maintenance of the line. Some of the same companies — including EllisDon and SNC-Lavalin and Dragados — are consortium members in Ottawa and in Toronto.
Given the scope of the problems in both projects, given the connections between players and consultants, perhaps much of what we learned from the Ottawa inquiry can be applied here. That includes having Metrolinx and the provincial government be open and transparent with the public about problems and delays.
An inquiry into Ottawa was necessary because the city was withholding key information from the public. Premier Ford must be open to the public before an inquiry is necessary for the Crosstown.
blilley@postmedia.com
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