LRT report shows system was rushed, slams City officials

“The people of Ottawa deserve better.”

Those were just some of the words spoken by Commissioner Justice William Hourigan at a news conference on Wednesday, Nov. 30 as he released his  637-page final report of the Ottawa light rail transit (LRT) public inquiry. 

Justice Hourigan released the highly anticipated report on Nov. 30, which shows a magnitude of reasons why the people of Ottawa did not receive the reliable transit system they had hoped for. 

The report found that officials with the City of Ottawa and the Rideau Transit Group (RTG) lost sight of public interest during the project. 

The inquiry's report shows the City chose unproven technology for the LRT system which led to an adversarial relationship between City officials and members of RTG. 

Justice Hourigan's report revealed that the City rushed the LRT system before it was even ready, as well as RTG and its subcontractors not providing adequate maintenance on the city's LRT system. 

The report slams former city manager, Steve Kanellakos, who resigned two days before the report's release, accusing him of deliberately misleading Ottawa city council by not telling them that the testing of the trains had been restarted nor that the trial running standards were lowered to obtain a pass.

Hourigan's report also rejected claims from former Ottawa Mayor, former OC Transpo boss John Marconi and Kanellakos that council wasn't told about what happened in the testing phase because they had committed to only advise council once testing was done. 

The report called the explanation '”nonsensical” and smacking of “an obvious attempt to justify the wrongful withholding of information retroactively and dishonestly.”

The report makes 103 recommendations including: 

•  Work to strengthen the City’s oversight framework should continue, including assessing OC Transpo’s oversight and monitoring programs and making any improvements identified to ensure safety and reliability of the system.
•  Following issues on the system, OLRT1 parties should continue to hold debrief meetings with all stakeholders present, in order to identify lessons learned and make improvements going forward.
•  A partnership approach should be adopted during the operations and maintenance phase and to address issues that arise on the system.
• Any outstanding payment issues between the City and RTG should be resolved at the earliest chance
•  If RTG continues to be responsible for maintenance during the remainder of the maintenance term, The City and the consortium need to work to repair their relationship

The report and the rest of the recommendations can be viewed here.