Ottawa LRT Public Inquiry

[rocketphish]

Local MPPs doubt whether province is taking LRT report recommendations seriously

Brian Dryden, OBJ
March 10, 2023 | 12:39 PM ET

Ottawa’s much-maligned light rail transit system is a blueprint for how not to do P3 projects in future, government officials agree. However, at least two local MPPs say the Conservative government is not taking those lessons seriously enough.

Many of the project’s shortcomings were detailed in a public inquiry report led by Justice William Hourigan. The final report, which was 664 pages long and made 103 recommendations, was released Nov. 30, 2022.

Orleans Liberal MPP Stephen Blais says there has been no debate in the provincial legislature since the Inquiry report was released.

“I think (the Conservative government) just want to forget about it,” Blais said.

“I have not seen any evidence that the Ford government or Metrolinx are taking the final report’s recommendations to heart,” said Blais, who was interviewed during the inquiry because he was chair of the Ottawa Transit Commission from 2014 to 2018 when he was on Ottawa city council.

“I have no doubt that the government and Metrolinx have reviewed the report, but there is a difference between reading something and acting on it,” Blais added.

A spokesperson for Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney says work is underway to address the recommendations in the inquiry report.

“Metrolinx, the Ontario government’s Crown agency that manages road and public transport in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area, has been told to make sure that the inquiry’s recommendations are followed,” said Dakota Brasier, senior spokesperson for the minister, in an email. “This is about ensuring we do not repeat the situation we saw in Ottawa.”

Following the release of the final report, Brasier added, the minister issued a letter of direction to Metrolinx stressing that it must continue to work closely with the provincial government to address and implement the report’s recommendations.

“The letter includes a requirement for Metrolinx to provide detailed plans for testing and commissioning of other projects underway.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Infrastructure said many of the recommendations of the public inquiry into the Ottawa LRT project were already being implemented before the report was released.

“The Ministry of Infrastructure works with Infrastructure Ontario (IO) to deliver infrastructure projects that are critical to the continued growth and prosperity of Ontario. IO had already adopted changes that align with many of the inquiry commissioner’s recommendations before the inquiry was ever called. The province is continuing to review the recommendations of the (inquiry),” said Sofia Sousa-Dias, a spokesperson for the ministry, in an email.

P3 projects are public-private partnerships that involve long-term agreements between a public agency and a private entity to design, build, finance, operate and maintain an infrastructure project. A P3 involves the private sector taking on some of the project’s financial risks.

The provincial government called the public inquiry into Ottawa’s $2.1-billion LRT project in November 2021 because of numerous delays in completing the project and the reliability of the service once it was completed.

Both the provincial and federal governments, along with the City of Ottawa, helped fund the first phase of the LRT project.

One of the main themes of the final report was that all parties involved lost sight of the “public” nature of the project.

“Until such time as the private and public entities involved in the … project understand that their first obligation is to the public, there is reason to be concerned that the project will continue to suffer problems,” the report said.

Ottawa West-Nepean NDP MPP Chandra Pasma says the province should have whistleblower legislation for large-scale projects going forward.

“There should not be any P3 projects, they should be public projects in the future which would give more public oversight right from the start,” Pasma told OBJ.

Blais said that, while the provincial NDP is against P3 projects on principle, the provincial Liberals believe P3 projects should be evaluated on “a case-by-case basis.”

“It depends on the project and what provides the best value for taxpayers,” Blais said.

When asked about the viability of P3 projects earlier this year by OBJ, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said the city would review the report to make sure that large-scale public and private projects are better designed and managed from now on.

“Once we have more time to look at the recommendations from the inquiry, we will be able to make further improvements to how these projects are rolling out. There’s a lot to do obviously, but I’m optimistic about public-private partnerships in the future.

“I’m not sure (the inquiry) is a statement about public-private partnerships or the issues that arose with this specific project and that there’s any reason to put an end to partnerships,” he adds.

“I think there’s a lot of lessons to be learned in terms of how we structure partnerships going forward and the parameters that need to be placed on them.”

https://obj.ca/local-mpps-doubt-whet...ons-seriously/

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Local MPPs doubt whether province is taking LRT report recommendations seriously

Brian Dryden, OBJ
March 10, 2023 | 12:39 PM ET

https://obj.ca/local-mpps-doubt-whet...ons-seriously/

No kidding. If it's outside of the GTHA, the Province doesn't care.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

No kidding. If it's outside of the GTHA, the Province doesn't care.

It makes me wonder if the public inquiry was politically motivated to throw Jim Watson under the bus (or train?) using tax payers money. Now that he is no longer in power, Toronto doesn't care anymore.

[MalcolmTucker]

I wonder what kind of response some expected?

They've asked Infrastructure Ontario to do the things. IO is the delivery organization for the province. In the future the province will be armed to push back against a City insisting that they have the expertise necessary to deliver a project 5-10-20 times as large as they ever have before.

[acottawa]

I am not sure what people expect to happen. The recommendations were for the most part general lessons learned.

[rocketphish]

City of Ottawa unveils 'robust' plan to tackle LRT inquiry recommendations
Fulfilling inquiry report recommendations 'top priority,' says transit GM

Trevor Pritchard · CBC News
Posted: Apr 19, 2023 6:48 PM EDT | Last Updated: April 19

OC Transpo's plan for tackling the recommendations put forth in a scathing report into Ottawa's problem-plagued light rail network is "robust" and can be applied to Stage 2 LRT as well, according to an independent firm the city hired to assess its plan.

That analysis from global transportation consulting firm Roland Berger came during Wednesday's briefing on the plan the city struck in the wake of last year's public inquiry into the Confederation Line.

The $2.1-billion line has been plagued by a litany of problems since its 2019 launch, including cracked wheels, broken axles and a faulty overhead power system.

There were also a pair of derailments in 2021, one of which that resulted in the LRT network being shut down for nearly two months and arguably sparked the resulting public inquiry.

In his report, inquiry commissioner Justice William Hourigan wrote that both the City of Ottawa and line builder Rideau Transit Group (RTG) lost sight of public interest as they "rushed" to complete the LRT, which was more than 15 months late.

He also issued 103 recommendations for how municipalities could prevent a similar situation in the future.

"I know I speak for my colleagues here when I say we are committed to implementing all of the recommendations," transit general manager Renée Amilcar said at the start of the meeting.

"This is a top priority for me."

Wednesday's briefing saw a cavalcade of city directors outline how their departments had taken the report's 103 recommendations to heart and were striving to do better.

The action plan, now available on the city's website, spells out each of the recommendations, as well as the concrete steps being taken to ensure they were being followed.

According to a statement from the city, 36 of the 103 recommendations are either complete or have been "incorporated into ongoing city policies for implementation into future projects." The rest of the recommendations that apply — some are targeted at other levels of government — are expected to be fulfilled by the end of the year, the city said.

Roland Berger looked at the recommendations and found there were 40 resulting actions that applied directly to OC Transpo.

"The internal action plan is robust and feasible, exhaustive and relevant," said Dominique Gautier, the firm's senior partner. "And we really do believe that the plan ... will contribute to ensure the success of the Stage 2 light rail project."

The nearly $4.7-billion Stage 2 project includes extending the Confederation Line west to Moodie Drive and east to Trim Road. It also involves an expansion of the long-closed north-south Trillium line, one that's slated to be finished in August or September but will likely take longer to complete.

One recommendation was completed earlier in 2023 when the city and RTG reached a joint settlement that put to rest several disputes that had been brewing over the years.

That settlement "cleared the table" for the two sides to work productively, said Michael Morgan, the city's director of rail construction.

"As of today, the city and RTG meet daily to discuss issues, to discuss the root causes of the problems that we've had over the past," Morgan said at the briefing.

"These are not trivial meetings. These are meetings with senior staff, senior staff from [train-builder] Alstom that are coming to the table on a regular basis to explain to [the city] how we're going to improve the service, how we're going to fix the issues."

RTG CEO Nicolas Truchon echoed that positivity, while noting one particular root cause — why a wheel broke off an axle in the first of the two derailments in the summer of 2021 — still remained elusive.

"It's a very complex technical issue, with a number of contributing factors," Truchon told reporters afterward, adding RTG was leaving "no stones unturned."

While many councillors were in attendance, only a few asked questions, as the plan is going to the light rail subcommittee on April 28 for more discussion.

One of those who did, Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine, said afterward that even with the action plan in place, he would be pushing for both openness and accountability on future LRT work.

"I'm still relatively new in my role here at council, but I will say that I have encountered multiple instances where I don't always feel there are consequences for bad systems, bad plans, mistakes that are made," he said.

"I'm confident that we can get there. I just don't think that we're there yet, but I hope that we do get there."

With files from Giacomo Panico

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...2023-1.6815283