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Ottawa’s light rail line project is “totally messed up” and a damning report on the litany of failures has confirmed the cost of the province’s public inquiry, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said.
At a press conference in Toronto Thursday morning, Ford spoke directly to reporters about the 664-page report released Wednesday by the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry.
The province called the inquiry in November, after a derailment near Tremblay station — the second of two that summer — took the Confederation Line out of commission for nearly two months.
Ottawa’s city council just voted 13-10 against calling for a judicial inquiry, instead settling for an investigation by the city’s auditor general.
In his remarks, Ford focused his vitriol on city officials, including former mayor Jim Watson.
“I think they did a terrible job. Mayor Watson — I’m being very frank here — he wasn’t transparent, he didn’t manage the project properly,” the premier said.
“He’s gone, and so is the city manager and some other people who worked here. [They] high-tailed out of there because they know it’s a disaster. And the people of Ottawa knew it was a disaster. The people of Ottawa finally have an answer now.”
‘We want to dig deeper’
In three terms in office, Watson oversaw approvals, construction, delays and the opening of the line in 2019. He did not run for re-election in 2022.
In his report, Justice William Hourigan had harsh words for Watson and former city manager Steve Kanellakos, who resigned Monday. He accused them of withholding information during the LRT’s final testing phase, when officials lowered the criteria to give the line a passing grade but did not tell the rest of the city council.
That behavior has raised “serious concerns about whether the City of Ottawa can properly complete significant infrastructure projects,” Hourigan wrote. It also prevented councilors “from fulfilling their statutory duties to the people of Ottawa.”
Watson is currently on a “long-planned personal holiday” and will read the report upon his return, a former staffer told the CBC.
While the report and its 103 recommendations also targeted the Rideau Transit Group, the consortium that built the $2.1-billion Confederation Line, Ford did not mention them by name in his remarks.
“[Ottawa LRT] was just absolutely shambles and stunk to high heaven, and we wanted to dig deeper. And we did,” Ford said.
The infrastructure minister emphasized Queen’s Park
One of Hourigan’s recommendations is that all levels of government look closely at the feasibility of using a public-private partnership contract for a major transit project.
Ottawa NDP MPPs Joel Harden and Chandra Pasma released a joint statement Wednesday criticizing that model, known as a P3. Then during Thursday’s Question Period at Queen’s Park, Pasma demanded to know if the Ford government would stop signing the “dangerous” contracts.
Pasma’s colleague, Toronto MPP Bhutila Karpoche, also pressed the province on the model — specifically that it’s being used for a 25-kilometre LRT line in Toronto that has missed several deadlines.
But Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma defended the use of P3s in the right circumstances, saying they allow the government to build hospitals and transit lines and expand highways across Ontario.
“Our P3 history in the province of Ontario is a remarkable one,” said Surma. “We were elected with a strong mandate to build this province, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney plans to review the LRT report in the coming days. While he did not comment specifically on P3s, he said taxpayers “deserve accountability for their money.”
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