The City of Ottawa has presented its closing statement in the Ottawa Light Rail Transit (“LRT”) Public Inquiry, outlining the City’s strong desire to hold to account the private contractors responsible for the historic and ongoing failures in the design, construction and maintenance of the LRT.
In its statement prepared by the City’s counsel for the Inquiry, Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP, the City focused on the Commission’s core mandate, which is to identify the circumstances and contributing factors that led to several problems with the Stage 1 LRT, including several breakdowns and derailments.
Ottawa residents are rightfully frustrated that the LRT has not always lived up to expectations. Although the Project was completed on budget, unlike the majority of similar projects, taxpayers have continued to bear the burden of private sector failures in the operations of the Confederation Line. It is the City’s strong desire to ensure RTG and its subcontractors are held accountable for the multiple failures in design, construction and maintenance.
In closing, the City of Ottawa’s submission includes a number of recommendations, including:
• An independent review of performance, deductions and the administration of the payment mechanism could be conducted in the first year of service.
• The Project Agreement should have more specific requirements for early engagement by the maintainer.
• The City should clearly communicate with Council when it plans to report and about what, at the outset of a project.
• The process for funding and cost sharing of megaprojects should be reorganized to reflect the complexity of the project and to account for procurement and delivery risks.
The City looks forward to the Commission’s Final Report, and hopes that the recommendations will enable the City, its public and private sector partners to deliver better transit for the people of Ottawa, while holding the companies who broke their contractual obligations to account.
The closing statement can be found on the Commission’s website.
