Ottawa LRT Public Inquiry

[rocketphish]

Public hearings set for investigation of LRT woes

Staff Reporter, Ottawa Citizen
May 11, 2022 • 3 hours ago • 2 minute read

Public hearings are scheduled for June 13 to July 8 to investigate Ottawa’s problem-plagued Light-Rail Transit system.

The commission is to look into “the commercial and technical circumstances that led to Stage 1 breakdowns and derailments of the Ottawa Light Rail Transit System,” according to a release announcing the hearings.

Witnesses representing the parties involved in the “Ottawa Light Rail Transit Project – Stage 1,” will testify under oath, the release says.

The province announced the inquiry last November, with Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney saying problems affecting the system have been “unacceptable and disappointing.”

“To get to the bottom of these issues facing the Ottawa LRT, our government will be launching a public inquiry. Our goal is to get this up and running as soon as possible.”

City manager Steve Kanellakos said on Wednesday that the city has provided over 500,000 documents to the commission, in addition to lists of hundreds of people who could be potential witnesses going back to 2007.

The commission lawyers are currently interviewing witnesses and will determine who will provide information during the public hearings, Kanellakos said.

Mayor Jim Watson confirmed he was interviewed by the commission lawyers about two weeks ago.

The hearings will be open to the public and the media.

The Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry was established on Dec. 16, 2021. with Justice William Hourigan named as commissioner.

Hearings will be held at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law – Common Law Section, in the Ian G. Scott Courtroom.

The public can watch the hearings via livestream broadcast in a large auditorium near the hearing room.

The livestream for the hearings will also be available on the Commission’s website,https://www.ottawalrtpublicinquiry.ca/ , in English and French.

The hearings will also be broadcast on television on Rogers Channels in English and in French.

The schedule for the day’s hearings will be posted on the Commission’s website.

There will also be two public hearings, May 25 and May 26, at the Ottawa’s Shaw Centre in Ottawa from 7 to 9 p.m., “to allow people to share their views on the breakdowns and derailments of the LRT system.

Go to the commission’s public meetings page (https://www.ottawalrtpublicinquiry.ca/public-meetings/) for more information and to register to attend and/or deliver a statement.

The commission can be reached at info@OLRTpublicinquiry.ca or by calling 1-833-597-1955 for anyone with inquiries or to submit information that will assist the investigation.

with files from Jon Willing

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...on-of-lrt-woes

[rocketphish]

LRT inquiry starts this week by hearing from the public
There are still opportunities for members of the public to share Confederation Line experiences

Joanne Chianello · CBC News
Posted: May 25, 2022 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: May 25

The Ottawa light rail public inquiry commission wants to hear from residents who might have had issues with the Confederation Line as the first public event launches today.

This week will see the beginning of the province-ordered inquiry into what may have led to the Confederation Line's many issues — including the two derailments on the main line — since its September 2019 launch.

Prior to testimony from key witnesses involved in designing, building and overseeing the LRT, the commission wants to hear from riders.

"LRT is part of the public life in Ottawa, it's an important system," said Kate McGrann, a co-lead counsel with the commission. "I would encourage people not to edit themselves. If they have an experience that has impacted them in any way with respect to their use of the LRT, then we do encourage them to come forward."

On Wednesday and Thursday at the Shaw Centre, the commission will hear from members of the public about their experiences with the Confederation Line.

The testimonials will run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and there are still spots available for Thursday evening.

McGrann said for those who cannot come in person, or who don't feel comfortable speaking publicly, people can email or phone the commission. They even encourage video messages.

"If you've got information about your experiences, then the commission is very interested in hearing that," she said. "We think it's a very important part of the commission's work."

Anyone interested in sharing their comments with the commission, even outside the two evenings set aside this week for public statements, can reach the inquiry team at info@OLRTpublicinquiry.ca or by calling 1-833-597-1955.

The Progressive Conservative government called for a public inquiry last November after Ottawa's city council refused to call for an inquiry itself, opting instead to ask the city's auditor general to investigate.

The decision also came on the heels of CBC reporting that one of the city's external consultants on the LRT, Brian Guest, wrote in an email that Bob Chiarelli's support for an inquiry was "screwing" him.

A week later, on Nov. 17, CBC reported that former transit boss John Manconi was aware of reliability issues with the 12.5-kilometre east-west Confederation Line just weeks before accepting the system.

The same day, the PC cabinet announced it was calling a public inquiry, but not before Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson wrote a five-page letter to then-transportation minister Caroline Mulroney asking to brief her before she called for an inquiry.

The commission was formally established on Dec. 16 and Justice William Hourigan was appointed to lead it.

The inquiry has a mandate to investigate commercial and technical issues that led to Confederation Line breakdowns and the two derailments last year. It's also looking at the city's oversight of the project, and its adherence to laws and safety standards.

The commission has already interviewed dozens of witnesses and the city alone has produced more than 500,000 documents for the inquiry.

Lawyers for the commission have spoken with many people at the city, including Watson, as well as representatives from builders Rideau Transit Group (RTG) and maintenance managers Rideau Transit Maintenance, plus Alstom, the French company that built the trains.

Some of these key players will be called to testify during the public hearing portion of the inquiry, which starts June 13 at the University of Ottawa. The proceeding will be livestreamed in English and French and broadcast on Rogers TV.

It's expected an enormous amount of information will be provided during this period.

Witnesses are scheduled to testify from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for four weeks, until July 8. Transcripts of their testimony will be uploaded to the commission's website the following day.

Through the course of the hearings the commission will also make available any relevant technical documents, previous testimony, and information previously gathered, said McGrann.

The witness list is not yet public.

Although the inquiry may often seem like a court case — it's taking place in a courtroom at the university's law school, lawyers for approved parties can cross-examine witnesses, and it's being led by an appeal court judge — there will be no findings of guilt or liability, nor can the commission order anyone to pay anyone else money.

The commissioner will look at the circumstances in the past that may have led to problems with the Confederation Line, but also make recommendations for future projects to avoid similar issues.

Despite the scope and complexity of the $2.1-billion project, the hundreds of thousands of documents it's examining and the many witnesses it's interviewing, the timeline for the commission is rapid.

It was only up and running in early 2022, but has been told by the government to present a final report by the end of August, with a possible extension to November.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...arts-1.6463008

[rocketphish]

Ottawa mayor, ex-head of OC Transpo among those set to testify at LRT public inquiry
40 witnesses in total called to speak at public inquiry into LRT

Kate Porter · CBC News
Posted: May 25, 2022 6:05 PM ET | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

The commission investigating the many breakdowns on Ottawa's Confederation Line has called 40 witnesses to testify at the public inquiry hearings next month, including a who's who of city hall players past and present.

Lawyers with the Ottawa Light Rail Commission, which was established last fall by the Progressive Conservative government, have been interviewing many people involved in the LRT over recent weeks.

Late Wednesday, just before a pair of public meetings were to begin, the commission released the draft list of those being asked to give testimony from June 13 to July 8 when hearings are held at a courtroom at the University of Ottawa.

Mayor Jim Watson and other sitting council members, including transit commission chair Allan Hubley, Somerset ward Coun. Catherine McKenney, and Capital ward's Shawn Menard are on that list.

Others set to testify include many of the city staff members and Rideau Transit Group (RTG) executives who have been grilled about the train's many problems since opening day in September 2019 — including two derailments, flat wheels, cracked wheels, arcing flashes on its overhead electrical system, jammed doors and more.

That list includes former transportation general manager John Manconi, city manager Steve Kanellakos, former RTG CEO Peter Lauch, and current consortium executives Mario Guerra and Nicolas Truchon.

The provincial government gave the commission a broad mandate, which includes looking at the decisions that led to the procurement for the first stage of light rail more than a decade ago.

That contract was approved by city council in December 2012, so the witness list also includes a number of former high-ranking city employees, including former rail director John Jensen, former treasurer Marian Simulik, and former deputy city manager Nancy Schepers.

Members of the public will also hear the perspectives of employees of Infrastructure Ontario, which oversaw the procurement of Stage 1 LRT, as well as train builder Alstom and consultant STV, among others.

In addition to the testimony, the commission has been provided with more than half a million documents from the City of Ottawa alone, not to mention documents from other parties.

Justice William Hourigan, commissioner of this investigation into the technical and commercial issues that led to the Confederation Line's breakdowns, is to deliver his findings and recommendations by Aug. 31, or by Nov. 30 if given an extension by Ontario's Minister of Transportation.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ased-1.6465794

[rocketphish]

LRT inquiry: Ottawa residents give commission a long list of complaints
Wednesday's public meeting, with a second scheduled for Thursday night, will be followed by public hearings that will look into the circumstances that led to breakdowns and derailments of Stage 1 of the city’s LRT system.

Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen
May 25, 2022 • 9 hours ago • 2 minute read

The Ottawa Light Rail Transit Commission held its first of two public meetings Wednesday night at the Shaw Centre, giving residents an opportunity to voice their concerns about the city’s beleaguered LRT system.

Only about half of the 14 scheduled speakers made presentations, shaving the allotted two hours to just under one, but the list of problems enumerated with the city’s light rail and related side effects was impressively lengthy, and included derailments, overcrowding and smoking on platforms, unreliable schedules, cancellations, sewage smells, frozen washrooms, doors not opening, broken wheels, rerouted buses, increased fares and an absence of transparency from the private-public partnership behind the system.

“What we need in this city is a transit system we can be proud of,” said Ottawa Transit Riders group member Laura Shantz, one of the speakers. “I’ve had to tell my kids over and over that it’s okay to take the train. ‘It will not catch on fire, it will not derail.’ And then they point to news stories where it’s caught on fire, where it’s derailed … and it’s hard for me to say this is a system we can take.”

The meetings — the second one is scheduled for Thursday night, also at the Shaw Centre — will be followed by public hearings that will look into the circumstances that led to breakdowns and derailments of Stage 1 of the city’s LRT system. Those hearings will be held from June 13 to July 8 at the University of Ottawa.

Community advocate Ken Rubin was Wednesday’s first speaker, joking that he took the precaution of riding his bicycle to the meeting. Rubin offered numerous recommendations, including the appointment of a new transit commission chairperson and that representatives from citizens’ groups Transport Action Canada and the Healthy Transportation Coalition be added.

Rubin also recommended that Mayor Jim Watson step away from the LRT file and any negotiations with the Rideau Transit consortium. The city, he added, must end its current 30-year maintenance arrangement and find a more “responsive” LRT maintenance company.

Rubin also took a swipe at the city’s planning committee, saying it needs to be revamped to include citizens’ group members from such organizations as the Federation of Community Associations, Ecology Ottawa and ACORN Canada, to avoid the “overt favouritism” that benefits developers over such community resources as hospitals, libraries, arts centres and parks.

Ottawa-Centre NDP candidate/incumbent Joel Harden, meanwhile, encouraged the commission to conduct a thorough investigation, given the impact he believes it will have on Phase 3 of the transit system, and his worry that the LRT process was set up “not to succeed.”

“We have to acknowledge the fact that the system has not functioned well, and for a brand-new system to have dented wheels, doors not functioning, wires falling off, five derailments … this merits serious public disclosure.”

In closing the meeting, inquiry commissioner Justice William Hourigan promised both answers and transparency.

“We’re going to be forthcoming with a report,” he said. “We need to understand what went wrong, who did what, and we’re going to get those answers for you.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...-of-complaints

[rocketphish]

Head of public inquiry into Ottawa's LRT promises answers
'This is your inquiry,' commissioner investigating LRT tells residents

Kate Porter · CBC News
Posted: May 26, 2022 7:39 AM ET | Last Updated: 11 hours ago

The commissioner investigating what led to the breakdowns and derailments on Ottawa's light rail system told residents Wednesday night that the upcoming public inquiry is their inquiry.

"We serve you," Justice William Hourigan told a well-spaced group of a few dozen people Wednesday evening at the first of two public meetings being held at Ottawa's Shaw Centre. He encouraged others to share their experiences at the second meeting Thursday or by email.

"We need to understand what went wrong, who did what, and we're going to get those answers for you. Absolutely we are."

The Ottawa light rail commission was established by Ontario's Progressive Conservative government last fall after Ottawa city council voted to ask for an audit of LRT's derailments and other issues instead of seeking a judicial inquiry.

Hourigan, a Court of Appeal justice who specialized in complex commercial litigation while in private practice, has been given a broad mandate to investigate the commercial and technical issues that led to those breakdowns, dating back to the procurement of the Confederation Line more than a decade ago.

He and his three lead counsel told residents the commission had been working non-stop since January and had gathered 1,000,000 documents, ultimately deciding that 10,000 were relevant to the inquiry.

They've also interviewed 90 witnesses, of which 40 have been asked to testify during public hearings that begin June 13.

That list was posted Wednesday, and includes everyone from Mayor Jim Watson and former transportation general manager John Manconi, to executives of Rideau Transit Group, and city decision makers from the era when the Confederation Line contract was approved in 2012.

"We're going to hear from witnesses. They're going to be examined by the lawyers, but that's not a private thing. It's a public thing. It's going to be televised," said Hourigan, who encouraged the public to watch online, or at the University of Ottawa, where the hearings will be streamed from a court room nearby.

The witnesses might formally give testimony next month, but Hourigan expressed a keen desire to first hear from riders of Ottawa's light rail system.

They experienced many of the Confederation's breakdowns first-hand, especially during its first months of operation when ridership was still high before the pandemic hit. After opening day in September 2019, the train saw flat wheels, cracked wheels, arcing flashes on its overhead electrical system, jammed doors and more.

Then came a pair of derailments in August and September of last year. The second of those incidents saw a train go off its tracks with several people on board, leading to a shutdown of nearly two months. The Transportation Safety Board concluded it was due to incomplete maintenance and a bolt that wasn't properly tightened.

A half dozen people gave statements at the Shaw Centre on Wednesday, although many more had originally signed up.

Evan Saslove described how he was excited to ride a train the day the Confederation Line opened, but within weeks was unable to rely on it to get to class on time at the University of Ottawa. He feels the LRT has been an embarrassment.

"I have been passionate about public transit, advocating for people to invest in and use public transit for as long as I can remember," Saslove told the commission. "So I hope you can understand just how devastating it was for me when I couldn't in good faith encourage others to take the O-Train."

Other speakers Wednesday night suggested there had been secrecy around the LRT and its contract, and felt they had lost faith in local officials.

Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin suggested the city's transit commission take on more oversight, and recommended the City of Ottawa end its 30-year maintenance contract with Rideau Transit Maintenance.

Hourigan said the commission's work will be transparent and residents will see its findings in a final report, which is due at the end of August.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ting-1.6465695

[rocketphish]

Fast LRT inquiry shouldn't run into confidentiality roadblocks, lead lawyer says
"Nothing is off-limits to us by virtue of litigation."

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
May 28, 2022 • 6 hours ago • 4 minute read

One of the lawyers leading the investigative work of the LRT inquiry doesn’t believe there will be barriers to getting details out of key witnesses who might be concerned about publicly disclosing sensitive information, even if those details are part of ongoing lawsuits.

Christine Mainville said there might be one area where disclosure would be carefully guarded, but she otherwise expects an open flow of information.

“I don’t see any hurdles. We’ve already interviewed 90-plus people and the only thing that I would say is off limits is if there are confidential arbitrations,” Mainville said in an interview Thursday night after listening to citizens talk about their Ottawa LRT problems during the final public meeting before the hearings.

At the same time, “nobody cannot answer a question just because a particular subject matter may also be the subject of a confidential arbitration,” Mainville said.

“I don’t think it prevents us from getting at the facts.”

Mainville is one of three lead counsels for the inquiry commission. Kate McGrann and John Adair are the others. Their job is to identify and interview witnesses and collect documents as they piece together facts that will help inquiry commissioner Justice William Hourigan.

The provincial government has asked the commission to look into the commercial and technical circumstances that led to Stage 1 LRT breakdowns and derailments.

The Dec. 16, 2021, cabinet order launching the LRT inquiry commission said the investigation should not interfere with ongoing legal proceedings.

Mainville suggested an active legal dispute between the City of Ottawa and Rideau Transit Group shouldn’t create barriers to gathering information since the litigation is public and those court documents are in the public domain. Those documents would also be accessible to the commission, if the lawyers are interested in them.

“Nothing is off-limits to us by virtue of litigation,” Mainville said.

Mainville said there was a process to protect “valid claims of confidentiality and privilege” and it was something the commission needed to respect under the Ontario Public Inquiries Act.

Since the inquiry doesn’t lay blame or assign liability, witnesses should be open and frank about the workings of the LRT project.

“The goal is that everybody will be truthful because it can’t be held against them,” Mainville said.

RTG has previously argued against releasing documents in access-to-information requests because of the allegedly proprietary nature of the LRT system’s design and construction.

The city, too, has managed what information the public can see when it comes to the Stage 1 contract. The agreement is published online, but it’s partially redacted.

“There may be some documents aspects of which there’s a valid claim over, and that’s a process being worked through, but I don’t see that as preventing us from getting the answers we need to accomplish our mandate,” Mainville said.

The inquiry commission has a uniquely compressed timeline to produce a report. The deadline for a final report is Aug. 30, but Ontario’s minister of transportation can extend it to Nov. 30.

So far, 40 witnesses have been identified to testify at the hearings over four weeks, starting June 13. The inquiry commission is willing to let the daily hearings go as late as 9 p.m. as lawyers and other participants try to get key evidence on the record within the schedule.

Mainville acknowledged that this inquiry would be “fast-paced.”

To gather information under the time constraints, commission lawyers have interviewed witnesses under oath in advance of the hearings, which is something not generally done in inquiries, Mainville said.

“There are a lot of witnesses interviewed through the investigation, but their statements don’t then become evidence,” Mainville said. “But one way we’ve streamlined this process is we’ve conducted a number interviews under oath so that we can then use it as evidence.”

The witnesses asked to testify at the hearings are those who the commission lawyers believe are important. The commission lawyers might also agree that the public needs to hear from those witnesses.

The commission has collected one million documents and lawyers have identified 10,000 “relevant” documents for the inquiry.

The inquiry will include expert panels later in July to help explain technical and procurement best practices in the industry. That final advice from experts will inform any recommendations made by the commissioner in his final report.

Assembling an independent panel of experts in areas of transit infrastructure and public-private partnerships can be a major challenge for an investigator looking for completely independent insights.

City auditors general, and even the city itself, have been challenged to find consultants who haven’t had RTG companies or the City of Ottawa as former clients. Plus, there are many firms that have worked directly on Ottawa’s LRT project.

The commission lawyers have seen how challenging it can be to round up independent experts.

“I’m not worried,” Mainville said. “We’ll get there.”

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...ad-lawyer-says

[rakerman]

Ottawa Light Rail Transit (investigation) Commission - Public Inquiry

Anyone can contact the Commission at info@OLRTpublicinquiry.ca or by calling 1-833-597-1955 if they have any general enquiries or to submit information that will serve the investigation.

Recordings of the May 25 & May 26 public meetings are available:

https://www.ottawalrtpublicinquiry.c...public-events/

The Commission will hear from key witnesses from June 13, 2022 to July 8, 2022. The livestream will be made available on the Commission’s website in both English and French.

[rocketphish]

Train maker Alstom says Ottawa knew LRT wasn't ready, but launched anyway: inquiry documents
Testimony filed with the province's inquiry foreshadow a lot of finger-pointing over the troubled $2.2-billion light rail system

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Jun 10, 2022 • 35 minutes ago • 5 minute read

French train maker Alstom has told the province’s LRT inquiry that the city of Ottawa and contractor Rideau Transit Group knew the $2.2-billion Confederation Line wasn’t ready to fully launch, but the city went ahead anyway.

In an opening statement that was filed to the inquiry commission, Alstom, a subcontractor to RTG, said: “Rather than further delay the start of revenue service, the city preferred to start the system by September 14, 2019, no matter what.

“Moreover, the city refused to ramp up revenue service through a soft launch, an industry-standard operational approach to allow a new system to shake out operational and maintenance issues before taking on the full capacity of ridership.”

The result was predictable, Alstom says; the city went after RTG for deficiencies.

Alstom hasn’t directly addressed the problems with the LRT system until now. The most public response from the company was when Mayor Jim Watson summoned the CEO to Ottawa City Hall in June 2019 to get assurances on when trains would be ready.

The inquiry commission, created by the provincial government, is tasked with investigating the breakdowns of Stage 1 LRT and the city’s choice of Rideau Transit Group (RTG) as its contractor. Justice William Hourigan is the commissioner who will preside over hearings that are expected to begin Monday. Piles of evidence collected by commission lawyers through witness interviews and document submissions foreshadow the kind of finger-pointing that could come out of the inquiry hearings.

Alstom designed the Citadis Spirit train for Ottawa’s LRT project, the first time the train-maker provided “rolling stock” for a Canadian rail system. Alstom is also the main subcontractor to RTG-affiliated Rideau Transit Maintenance on the 30-year maintenance agreement with the city.

In its opening statement to the commission, Alstom offers reasoning why some of the train problems have been happening.

“Early investigation results indicate that non-compliant track design has contributed to excess stress on the vehicles that has led to this accelerated axle failure rate,” Alstom says as it addresses the August 2021 derailment near Tunney’s Pasture.

According to Alstom, the “design of the track generates excessively high transversal stress on the vehicles during operation, particularly in certain curves, that causes excessive fretting under the bearing of the axle.”

There are tight curves in the 12.5-kilometre rail line between the downtown tunnel’s east portal and Tremblay Station.

Alstom also reveals how it became involved with the RTG bid.

Originally, Alstom tried to be part of a different bid that didn’t get past the qualification stage. Alstom then asked to be part of two of the qualified consortia, but the consortia declined.

In June 2012, as time was ticking down in the city’s LRT procurement process, RTG approached Alstom about being its train supplier after RTG’s original supplier, CAF, was disqualified by the city, according to Alstom.

Alstom says it only had three months to write its bid as part of RTG’s proposal to the city, but that the industry norm for this kind of work is between nine and 18 months.

Alstom had to reconfigure its Citadis train, which was used in other parts of the world, in response to the city’s requirements. The city’s vehicle design requirements were “at the absolute edge of what an LRV (light rail vehicle) can do,” Alstom says.

After RTG won the contract competition, the city took 12 months to finalize design choices, delaying production of the trains and validation testing, Alstom says, and all parties, including the city and RTG, decided to manufacture and test the trains at the same time to avoid delays.

“The risk, known and accepted by all the parties, was that engineering issues identified during validation testing would result in retrofits to vehicles already produced,” Alstom’s opening statement says.

“Predictably, that is exactly what happened on this project.”

The engineering team hired by RTG’s construction contractor to design most of the tracks and stations filed its own opening statement to the commission last week.

RTG Engineering Joint Venture, a partnership of SNC-Lavalin and WSP Canada, says the “provision of engineering services did not cause or contribute to the maintenance issues, breakdowns, or the derailments which are the primary subject matters of this Inquiry.”

In its own opening statement to the inquiry filed on Monday, the City of Ottawa says it wasn’t in a rush to open the LRT system.

“The city’s focus was and is on public safety, reliability and the customer experience for light rail in Ottawa,” the city’s statement says.

Around the period of the trial run, the city agreed to decrease the number of double-vehicle trains required for peak periods, from 15 to 13, after seeing that ridership didn’t hit levels predicted in the contract. The city thought it would also give RTM some breathing room with more spare vehicles.

While RTG argues a soft launch is “best practice,” the city says there was no “soft start” required under the contract.

“The City was entitled to expect that once the system was handed over it was ready to go into service,” the city’s opening statement says.

The city noted that it “remains concerned about the ability and commitment of RTG and its subcontractors to properly maintain the system.”

Meanwhile, RTG blasts the city for failing to properly manage public expectations for a new transit system.

“The city exacerbated these challenges by failing to sensitize riders to the possibility and normality of service interruptions. Instead, the city promoted the system to Ottawa commuters as a ‘turn key’ system, when an experienced transit operator knows that any new transit system of this complexity experiences ‘growing pains,'” according to RTG’s opening statement also filed on Monday.

RTG says it was “let down” by Alstom because of delayed delivery of trains and slowness in establishing a maintenance workforce.

“Given Alstom’s vast resources, market power, and the global scale of its operations and expertise, the RTG Parties expected more from Alstom,” RTG says.

The inquiry hearings are scheduled to last four weeks. They will take place at the University of Ottawa, where the public can watch via a livestream that will also appear on the commission’s website. The hearings will also be broadcast on Rogers TV. A schedule of witnesses, which is subject to change, is available here.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...uiry-documents

[DarthVader_1961]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Train maker Alstom says Ottawa knew LRT wasn't ready, but launched anyway: inquiry documents
Testimony filed with the province's inquiry foreshadow a lot of finger-pointing over the troubled $2.2-billion light rail system

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Jun 10, 2022 • 35 minutes ago • 5 minute read

French train maker Alstom has told the province’s LRT inquiry that the city of Ottawa and contractor Rideau Transit Group knew the $2.2-billion Confederation Line wasn’t ready to fully launch, but the city went ahead anyway.

In an opening statement that was filed to the inquiry commission, Alstom, a subcontractor to RTG, said: “Rather than further delay the start of revenue service, the city preferred to start the system by September 14, 2019, no matter what.

“Moreover, the city refused to ramp up revenue service through a soft launch, an industry-standard operational approach to allow a new system to shake out operational and maintenance issues before taking on the full capacity of ridership.”

The result was predictable, Alstom says; the city went after RTG for deficiencies.

Alstom hasn’t directly addressed the problems with the LRT system until now. The most public response from the company was when Mayor Jim Watson summoned the CEO to Ottawa City Hall in June 2019 to get assurances on when trains would be ready.

The inquiry commission, created by the provincial government, is tasked with investigating the breakdowns of Stage 1 LRT and the city’s choice of Rideau Transit Group (RTG) as its contractor. Justice William Hourigan is the commissioner who will preside over hearings that are expected to begin Monday. Piles of evidence collected by commission lawyers through witness interviews and document submissions foreshadow the kind of finger-pointing that could come out of the inquiry hearings.

Alstom designed the Citadis Spirit train for Ottawa’s LRT project, the first time the train-maker provided “rolling stock” for a Canadian rail system. Alstom is also the main subcontractor to RTG-affiliated Rideau Transit Maintenance on the 30-year maintenance agreement with the city.

In its opening statement to the commission, Alstom offers reasoning why some of the train problems have been happening.

“Early investigation results indicate that non-compliant track design has contributed to excess stress on the vehicles that has led to this accelerated axle failure rate,” Alstom says as it addresses the August 2021 derailment near Tunney’s Pasture.

According to Alstom, the “design of the track generates excessively high transversal stress on the vehicles during operation, particularly in certain curves, that causes excessive fretting under the bearing of the axle.”

There are tight curves in the 12.5-kilometre rail line between the downtown tunnel’s east portal and Tremblay Station.

Alstom also reveals how it became involved with the RTG bid.

Originally, Alstom tried to be part of a different bid that didn’t get past the qualification stage. Alstom then asked to be part of two of the qualified consortia, but the consortia declined.

In June 2012, as time was ticking down in the city’s LRT procurement process, RTG approached Alstom about being its train supplier after RTG’s original supplier, CAF, was disqualified by the city, according to Alstom.

Alstom says it only had three months to write its bid as part of RTG’s proposal to the city, but that the industry norm for this kind of work is between nine and 18 months.

Alstom had to reconfigure its Citadis train, which was used in other parts of the world, in response to the city’s requirements. The city’s vehicle design requirements were “at the absolute edge of what an LRV (light rail vehicle) can do,” Alstom says.

After RTG won the contract competition, the city took 12 months to finalize design choices, delaying production of the trains and validation testing, Alstom says, and all parties, including the city and RTG, decided to manufacture and test the trains at the same time to avoid delays.

“The risk, known and accepted by all the parties, was that engineering issues identified during validation testing would result in retrofits to vehicles already produced,” Alstom’s opening statement says.

“Predictably, that is exactly what happened on this project.”

The engineering team hired by RTG’s construction contractor to design most of the tracks and stations filed its own opening statement to the commission last week.

RTG Engineering Joint Venture, a partnership of SNC-Lavalin and WSP Canada, says the “provision of engineering services did not cause or contribute to the maintenance issues, breakdowns, or the derailments which are the primary subject matters of this Inquiry.”

In its own opening statement to the inquiry filed on Monday, the City of Ottawa says it wasn’t in a rush to open the LRT system.

“The city’s focus was and is on public safety, reliability and the customer experience for light rail in Ottawa,” the city’s statement says.

Around the period of the trial run, the city agreed to decrease the number of double-vehicle trains required for peak periods, from 15 to 13, after seeing that ridership didn’t hit levels predicted in the contract. The city thought it would also give RTM some breathing room with more spare vehicles.

While RTG argues a soft launch is “best practice,” the city says there was no “soft start” required under the contract.

“The City was entitled to expect that once the system was handed over it was ready to go into service,” the city’s opening statement says.

The city noted that it “remains concerned about the ability and commitment of RTG and its subcontractors to properly maintain the system.”

Meanwhile, RTG blasts the city for failing to properly manage public expectations for a new transit system.

“The city exacerbated these challenges by failing to sensitize riders to the possibility and normality of service interruptions. Instead, the city promoted the system to Ottawa commuters as a ‘turn key’ system, when an experienced transit operator knows that any new transit system of this complexity experiences ‘growing pains,'” according to RTG’s opening statement also filed on Monday.

RTG says it was “let down” by Alstom because of delayed delivery of trains and slowness in establishing a maintenance workforce.

“Given Alstom’s vast resources, market power, and the global scale of its operations and expertise, the RTG Parties expected more from Alstom,” RTG says.

The inquiry hearings are scheduled to last four weeks. They will take place at the University of Ottawa, where the public can watch via a livestream that will also appear on the commission’s website. The hearings will also be broadcast on Rogers TV. A schedule of witnesses, which is subject to change, is available here.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...uiry-documents

I doubt anyone is surprised.

[rakerman]

2.0 Alstom was a late addition to RTG’s proposal

16. ... Ottawa was the first Canadian City to require LRVs to meet American Public Transportation Association (“APTA”) standards. European standards are far more typical in Canada. ... Typical LRV capacity is about 10,000 passengers per hour per direction (“PPHPD”). The City required 24,000 PPHPD. ... The short headways could only be achieved by a fully automated system, with a highly aggressive acceleration and braking profile.

17. No supplier in the world had an LRV in their stable that could achieve the City’s requirements “off the shelf”. All the proponents for the Project would have had to modify their existing Vehicle designs to meet the City’s goals, which are at the absolute edge of what an LRV can do.

5.0 Deficiencies in the track design have caused excessive stress on the vehicles

IN THE MATTER of a Commission of Inquiry Respecting the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Project by Order in Council 1859/2021

Opening Statement of Alstom Transport Canada Inc., 6 June 2022 (PDF)

from Ottawa Light Rail Transit investigation Commission - Documents - Evidence.

[Williamoforange]

>19.Alstom’s design of the LRVs required certain decisions to be taken by the City during the
design review process, which is a typical process for any LRV supply. However, the City
was more than a year late finalizing its design choices. The City’s delay directly impacted
the start of production for Alstom’s first prototype Vehicles by about 12 months.

That, that is what is going to bite the city in this report and many others. I don't think the city has the bureaucratic capacity (State Capacity) to manage its required work in a timely & competent fashion not through its own fault per se but through decades of political push for efficiency. Efficiency that has only been gained through keeping capacity at or near 100% (look at the bus system required capacity = planned capacity). The bureaucracy is understaffed, overworked, and underexperienced (likely due to the former) leading to in the end forced errors/issues.

Note: I think RTG and Alstom should still bear the brunt of the ill-will for what is gone on with Stage 1, because well this ain't much better in the private sector when it comes to these sort of companies. and that the point at this time only just Alstom opinion, but its not the first or last time that the city has delayed things.

Also, if you want an example the pedestrian bridge to Woodroffe high-school in stage 2, federally you have well numerous things but lets go with military procurement (Truenorth feel free to tell me to take a hike on that if you think i'm wrong, cause I am likely such)

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Williamoforange

>19.Alstom’s design of the LRVs required certain decisions to be taken by the City during the
design review process, which is a typical process for any LRV supply. However, the City
was more than a year late finalizing its design choices. The City’s delay directly impacted
the start of production for Alstom’s first prototype Vehicles by about 12 months.

That, that is what is going to bite the city in this report and many others. I don't think the city has the bureaucratic capacity (State Capacity) to manage its required work in a timely & competent fashion not through its own fault per se but through decades of political push for efficiency. Efficiency that has only been gained through keeping capacity at or near 100% (look at the bus system required capacity = planned capacity). The bureaucracy is understaffed, overworked, and underexperienced (likely due to the former) leading to in the end forced errors/issues.

Note: I think RTG and Alstom should still bear the brunt of the ill-will for what is gone on with Stage 1, because well this ain't much better in the private sector when it comes to these sort of companies. and that the point at this time only just Alstom opinion, but its not the first or last time that the city has delayed things.

Also, if you want an example the pedestrian bridge to Woodroffe high-school in stage 2, federally you have well numerous things but lets go with military procurement (Truenorth feel free to tell me to take a hike on that if you think i'm wrong, cause I am likely such)

But also the city consistently disregarded the advice they were given. They held consultations with industry early in the process. The consistent advice they got was light metro, which they could have just bought off the shelf. Instead they insisted on using trams, which meant they needed a heavily customized product, which led to needless expense and delays.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by acottawa

But also the city consistently disregarded the advice they were given. They held consultations with industry early in the process. The consistent advice they got was light metro, which they could have just bought off the shelf. Instead they insisted on using trams, which meant they needed a heavily customized product, which led to needless expense and delays.

And no plans for street use at this point. I guess marginally cheaper? I mean our inner 4 stops are as busy as most heavy metro lines no?

[rocketphish]

Expect blame, new details as light rail public hearings begin today
Rideau Transit Group calls city an adversarial micromanager, wants relationship 'reset'

Kate Porter · CBC News
Posted: Jun 13, 2022 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

The long-awaited public hearings into Ottawa's light rail transit (LRT) system begin Monday morning, and documents filed by the key players reveal new details about the atypical design of the city's trains and strained behind-the-scenes relationships.

The decade since city council decided to take bids for a new east-west line and tunnel has not turned out as expected.

A sinkhole opened during tunnelling, the train opened more than 15 months late and myriad technical issues stranded passengers before two trains derailed last summer.

Now, lawyers for the main parties — including the City of Ottawa, Rideau Transit Group, and train maker Alstom — have laid out their versions of who and what is to blame in opening statements for four weeks of hearings.

Mayor Jim Watson might watch some of the proceedings and has been called to testify June 30, but said last week the public inquiry was a decision made by the province that the city has to "live with" and he hoped it wouldn't take away from the Confederation Line's recent reliability.

On the other hand, the system's builder and maintainer Rideau Transit Group — a consortium made up of ACS Infrastructure, SNC-Lavalin and Ellis Don — sees the light rail commission's work as its chance for frustrated riders to get the "full picture" because under its contract "the city controls what information can be made public."

Here's what the opening statements have to say on some key issues.

The city and Rideau Transit Group (RTG) both point the finger at Alstom. The city sees it as a subcontractor RTG hasn't been managing properly to do maintenance on the trains it supplied.

RTG said it didn't want Alstom trains, but went with them because the city "left no doubt that it wanted the Alstom vehicle" during the bid process for the $2.1 billion contract.

The fact an Alstom train part caused a derailment last August should lead the commissioner to look at why Alstom trains were chosen a decade ago, RTG's lawyers say.

CBC News had reported in 2019 that Ottawa was not getting Alstom's proven Citadis train as expected, but a brand-new model called the Citadis Spirit.

Alstom now explains that no train maker in the world had an existing "off the shelf" train to provide Ottawa. It joined RTG's bid team late, back in 2012, and tried to meet the city's price and technical demands under tight timelines.

The City of Ottawa wanted a train to fit unusually long 120-metre platforms, with capacity for 24,000 passengers each hour. That was more than double the 10,000 passengers a light rail vehicle usually carries and akin to a subway car, Alstom explains.

"To this day, the Citadis vehicles operating on the Ottawa Confederation line are the longest [light rail vehicles] operating in North America."

Residents watched as Rideau Transit Group failed to meet the original May 2018 handover date for the new Confederation Line, and then missed several others before finally opening to passengers in September 2019.

The City of Ottawa's external lawyers pin the delay on RTG not co-ordinating the schedules of its subcontractors, especially train maker Alstom and Thales, which built the computer control system — but not the 2016 sinkhole that engulfed part of Rideau Street.

The city was supposed to have a "limited role" as the owner in a public-private partnership and only realized the handover date was no longer "realistic" in 2017, they say.

For Rideau Transit Group, however, the sinkhole had "a significant cascading impact" that set work behind by at least nine months. Plus, it alleges "faulty municipal watermain infrastructure in the soil may have caused the sinkhole."

Alstom, however, said the delay began long before the sinkhole, when the city was "more than a year late finalizing its design choices" for the train cars, putting its development of a prototype back by a year.

Alstom's lawyers go on to say Ottawa's LRT was deemed fit for service too soon.

"All the parties were aware that the system was not ready for revenue service but the city and RTG pressed ahead anyway," they argue.

"Rather than further delay the start of revenue service, the city preferred to start the system by Sept. 14, 2019, no matter what."

"The result was predictable," add Alstom's lawyers, who argue it made financial sense for RTG to get its final construction payment and to enter the maintenance period when it could pass along costs to Alstom.

It's no secret that the City of Ottawa and Rideau Transit Group have been fighting for months — they have multimillion-dollar lawsuits before the courts.

In the inquiry documents the city blames the consortium, which has a $1 billion 30-year maintenance contract, for responding to the LRT's many operational issues in a "short-sighted and ad hoc" way.

"Essentially, RTG expects to receive the full monthly service payment while providing skeletal maintenance services," write the city's lawyers. "When RTG exerts itself, performance improves."

Rideau Transit Group, however, casts the City of Ottawa as an "adversarial" and "inflexible" micromanager. The consortium alleges the city sought a $500,000 maintenance deduction over a broken washroom mirror.

When the LRT developed problems in the fall of 2019 that stranded riders — something RTG said could have spared residents if it had had a "soft launch" — RTG lawyers suggest "the city bowed to political pressures to act 'tough.'"

"The success of a [public-private partnership] project depends on the parties being true partners," RTG writes. "At present, the RTG parties' relationship with the City is in a challenging state, and it needs to be reset for the residents of Ottawa."

The commission begins hearings on Monday and the public can attend and watch online at 9 a.m. They continue to July 8, and will hear from dozens of witnesses, including high-profile city and corporate officials.

The City of Ottawa is being represented by Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP. Rideau Transit Group's lawyers are from Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP, and Alstom's are with Glaholt Bowles LLP. All are Toronto-based firms.

It all will be overseen by commissioner William Hourigan, an Ontario appeal court justice.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ents-1.6483663

[rocketphish]

Brian Guest explains his 'screwing' comment to LRT inquiry commission
Guest's firm Boxfish Infrastructure Group has been a top consultant on the city's LRT project.

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Jun 14, 2022 • 2 hours ago • 3 minute read

Brian Guest was concerned about the legacy of his mentor when he warned Bob Chiarelli about “screwing” him by talking about an inquiry into Ottawa’s LRT program, according to evidence Guest provided to the inquiry commission.

“God, man, you know, think about all these people who are retired, think about me, think about what you’re saying and how you brand yourself when you talk on the radio,” Guest told a commission lawyer, referring to Chiarelli and the former politician’s decision to release, and talk about, an email he received from Guest about the idea of calling an inquiry into LRT.

In that email to Chiarelli, Guest says: “You know who you are screwing with this support for the judicial inquiry right? Someone who has always been your loyal friend and servant.”

Guest was summoned to provide evidence to the inquiry commission and commission co-lead counsel Kate McGrann interviewed him on May 18.

The transcript of Guest’s interview was released on Tuesday.

Guest’s firm Boxfish Infrastructure Group has been a top consultant on the city’s LRT project, whose Stage 1 is the subject of the provincial inquiry.

When Chiarelli was regional chair and mayor, Guest was his top policy advisor. Guest would go on to work for former prime minister Paul Martin before he left government.

Chiarelli released the email last year as he was considering another bid for the mayor’s job, and the optics of the “screwed” comment by Guest dropped jaws. Shortly later, the provincial government called the LRT inquiry.

“I consider him a friend and mentor. He gave me my first job in politics that was meaningful, and, you know, I just — I care for the guy,” Guest told commission co-lead counsel Kate McGrann during his interview.

Guest said he thought he could be “kind of candid in terms of my expression of my opinion.”

According to Guest, Chiarelli’s remarks about an inquiry “was just so off for him.”

“So I sent a note to him, which he appears to have been offended by. That’s what I meant,” Guest said in his interview.

In his interview, Guest said he believed the calls for a judicial inquiry were “100 per cent politically motivated,” first pointing out that the NDP in Ontario “has a long running mischaracterization” of public-private partnerships.

“But also particularly there were three councillors on council who were using this call for judicial inquiry to effectively get at the mayor because as it’s turned out in due course, two of them planned to run against the mayor, although the mayor is not seeking re-election, but it was very transparently (sic) what was happening was a lot of politics.”

Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney is running for mayor in the October municipal election and has filed their election papers. Coun. Diane Deans has indicated she would run for mayor, but she had not filed her papers as of Tuesday.

Both councillors have been highly critical of the city’s management of the LRT program. They were among several councillors, but not a majority of council, who called for a judicial inquiry.

According to Guest, “Chiarelli was going along with something that was very poorly motivated, and very unlikely to help. In fact, much more likely to hurt.”

Guest said for him personally it’s been “an unwelcome distraction” because he’s busy working on Toronto transit projects.

He also noted that the inquiry came with financial implications, since he had to pay a lawyer.

Guest suggested the inquiry wouldn’t get decent answers because of the “privileged” nature of the information, particularly inside the Rideau Transit Group.

As Guest put it in his interview, “that’s where all the action is.”

As for the “screwed” comment, Guest told the commission lawyer, “if I had a time machine, I could go back and not include that line.”

Guest is scheduled to give testimony during the public hearing on June 27.

Meanwhile, Chiarelli is back in the political mix. He has filed papers to run for mayor in the October municipal election.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...iry-commission

[rocketphish]

Day 2 of LRT inquiry focuses on $2.1B budget and procurement model
The city's project budget was in 2009 dollars. In the years that followed, city engineers and consultants tweaked the design to protect the $2.1-billion budget.

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Jun 14, 2022 • 15 minutes ago • 3 minute read

There was no way the City of Ottawa wanted to stray from its $2.1-billion budget for the first phase of the LRT system, according to an Infrastructure Ontario executive who helped advise the city.

Rob Pattison, a senior vice-president with the provincial agency, which was the city’s main procurement advisor for Stage 1 LRT, told the inquiry commissioner on Tuesday that the city didn’t want to budge from its project budget, even though he raised it as a “red flag that you might have a failed procurement.”

“What was expressed to me was, the budget was not up for debate,” Pattison testified in questioning led by commission counsel Chris Grisdale.

“It was just understood. I heard it several times that that was the goal, that was the amount the city had to spend.”

Day 2 of the LRT inquiry focused on the procurement approach, the city’s “affordability cap” and whether the city set an appropriate budget for the project.

The city’s project budget was in 2009 dollars. In the years that followed, city engineers and consultants tweaked the design to protect the $2.1-billion budget. In one big design change, the city relocated and shortened the downtown tunnel and made it shallower.

City council selected the Rideau Transit Group as the winning contractor in December 2012.

The city would eventually exhaust the separate $100-million project contingency, pushing the total cost past $2.2 billion.

In responding to questions from city lawyer Peter Wardle, Pattison said he believes the city’s $2.1-billion budget was appropriate because there were bids for the LRT job. There were three bidders on the Stage 1 LRT project.

If bidders don’t respond to a procurement opportunity, it might indicate the budget is unrealistic, Pattison said.

Much of Pattison’s evidence centred on procurement models, such as public-private partnerships (P3). He explained that the financing element by the private contractor is what makes a P3.

In May 2011, council directed staff to pursue a design-build-maintain (DBM) model for the LRT project.

Pattison said his agency recommended a design-build-finance-maintain (DBFM) model to the city. The financing element requires the winning contractor to get a loan to finance the work to, in part, put more pressure on the contractor to finish the job on time and to do it well.

The city required RTG to secure $300-million in long-term project financing.

Pattison said he had no concerns about the DBFM model for Ottawa’s LRT project. He said third-party lenders add an “independent view in their own interest in getting paid.

Former city treasurer Marian Simulik, who also testified on Tuesday, said the city didn’t see its affordability cap for the project as an issue, though staff prepared for the potential of bidders proposing to go over the cap.

Commission co-lead counsel Kate McGrann asked Simulik if the city’s budget for the project presented a risk to the city if bidders proposed work they couldn’t achieve.

Simulik said no.

“We trusted the private sector to act reasonably and produce a document or bid that reflected what the costs were going to be,” Simulik said.

Simulik said she didn’t feel any pressure from Mayor Jim Watson’s office to stick to the $2.1-billion budget.

“I do not recall any pressure from the mayor’s office to do anything other than follow council’s direction,” Simulik said in response to a question from Wardle, the city’s lawyer.

McGrann also spent significant time with Simulik probing the city’s decision to take over as the lender to RTG from third-party lenders in a so-called “debt swap.”

The commission has collected testimony from RTG suggesting the consortium raised its eyebrows over the city taking over as its lender.

The relationship between the city and RTG changed when the sinkhole happened in 2016, Simulik said Tuesday. The debt swap was “one more thing RTG was not happy with,” she said.

The public can watch all hearings of the LRT inquiry on video screens set up at Fauteux Hall at the University of Ottawa, online at www.ottawalrtpublicinquiry.ca or on Rogers TV, channels 470 in English and 471 in French.

On Wednesday, the commission will hear from John Traianopoulos, a senior vice-president with Infrastructure Ontario, and Nancy Schepers, a former deputy city manager with the City of Ottawa.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...curement-model

[rocketphish]

LRT budget so low that some worried bidders couldn't meet it, inquiry hears
Former treasurer, provincial agent grilled on whether the budget constrained quality

Joanne Chianello · CBC
Posted: Jun 15, 2022 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

A number of key players in the bidding process for Stage 1 of Ottawa's Confederation Line were worried the $2.1-billion budget wasn't big enough to attract proposals for the massive infrastructure project, the light rail public inquiry heard Tuesday.

Rob Pattison, who headed the LRT division for provincial agency Infrastructure Ontario, told the commission Tuesday morning he was told "the budget was not up for debate" and worried no one would bid for the 12.5-kilometre LRT project, which opened behind schedule in 2019.

"That's the amount the city had to spend," said Pattison. "And, you know, that raised the flag of, you might have a failed procurement."

Even the former city manager who oversaw the LRT procurement told the inquiry in a May 30 interview it was a concern that bidders might not be able to put together proposals that met the price cap, especially as the downtown tunnel presented some risk to constructors.

"Personally, I don't know if I was ever comfortable until the day we opened the bids and we had submissions that we were going to be able to proceed," Kent Kirkpatrick told a commission lawyer.

In the end, though, two of the three shortlisted consortiums had bids within the $2.1 billion envelope, including Rideau Transit Group (RTG), which won by scoring the highest.

The Ottawa LRT public inquiry, called by the province last fall, is investigating what commercial and technical issues may have led to Confederation Line problems, starting as it was being planned and especially the two derailments last summer.

The commission, led by Ontario appeal court Justice William Hourigan, is looking at the project somewhat chronologically and has spent the first two days concentrating on the procurement process — including whether the size of the project budget may have constrained the line's quality.

The $2.1-billion budget for the LRT was set in 2009, but it was preliminary: it was before any detailed engineering was completed, and did not take inflation into account.

At the same time, the federal and provincial governments at the time had committed to contribute only $600 million each toward the project.

Over subsequent years, the city and its experts found ways to keep the project within the budget, including shortening the downtown tunnel, moving it so it would be more shallow and shortening the station platforms — all issues that former deputy Nancy Schepers is expected to be asked about when she appears at the inquiry on Wednesday afternoon.

The inquiry lawyers have pressed witnesses about whether the city's inflexibility on the budget had ramifications for the quality of the project and whether there was political pressure to hold down the price tag.

"Were there any discussions about whether the budget or the cap introduced a risk or increased the risk that the private sector might overpromise in its bids in order to make it under the cap or meet the budget?" commission co-counsel Kate McGrann asked former treasurer Marian Simulik on Tuesday afternoon.

Simulik not only denied any such discussions, but said that the city had confidence the consortiums bidding for the project — which were composed of giant multinational corporations — would put together professional proposals.

"We basically trusted the private sector to act reasonably and produce a document or a bid that reflected what they thought the costs were going to be," Simulik told the commission.

Pattison also said Tuesday that the fact two price-compliant proposals were submitted was proof the budget looked doable to the very experienced corporations that bid for the project.

Both Simulik and Pattison said it's not unusual for a project to be designed to budget, something inquiry lawyers have suggested could have happened.

Pattison said that sometimes "there's a number and you can't exceed it and you're prepared to [scale it back] or kill the project if you can't fit within that number."

The inquiry heard that the city's request for proposals included a contingency plan in case all the bidders came in over budget, which would have required additional approvals by council.

Along with Schepers, John Traianopoulos of Infrastructure Ontario is also on Wednesday's hearing schedule.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...line-1.6488067

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

[B]LRT budget so low that some worried bidders couldn't meet it, inquiry hears
Former treasurer, provincial agent grilled on whether the budget constrained quality

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...line-1.6488067

I got a great idea, if you cannot do it for that price, don't bid on it.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

I got a great idea, if you cannot do it for that price, don't bid on it.

There are ways to design your contracting to avoid desperation/survival bids--very uncommon in Canada. The easiest is to award to the lowest cost, but award them payments of the second lowest bid.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

There are ways to design your contracting to avoid desperation/survival bids--very uncommon in Canada. The easiest is to award to the lowest cost, but award them payments of the second lowest bid.

Regardless, cos overruns and delays are a big problem in all government contracts.