Province launching inquiry into Ottawa LRT is the right call: Horwath

The leader of Ontario's NDP is supportive of the Ford government's decision to hold a public judicial inquiry into Ottawa's light-rail system.

Andrea Horwath says she feels a public inquiry is the right thing to do since she feels Ottawa residents need the answers as to what went wrong with the Confederation Line, which was out of service for 54 days following a derailment in September.

She is also hopeful the inquiry will have a broad scope.

“We know there are often problems with public-private partnerships, and that model has been around in Ontario for a while,” the opposition leader explained. “We need to take a serious look at if it's effective or if it isn't — if it's a good value for money.”

However, Ottawa-South Liberal MPP John Fraser feels the province should have taken action into the LRT sooner.

“Our government, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Metrolinx, all have those resources that could have helped Ottawa,” Fraser stated. “This problem didn't happen three weeks ago, it's been there for a year.”

He adds while residents need answers into Ottawa's issue-plagued LRT, they also need a system that runs safely without interruption.