Bob Chiarelli statement on the state of Ottawa's LRT Boondoggle

As everyone knows this LRT Project is a massive unfinished and troublesome file; some people would say it is a mess. So, in limited time and space I only endeavour to raise several issues which barely touch the flavour of the challenges facing our city.

By way of an overview, the commissioner of the LRT public inquiry stated the first job of the mayor and the transit commission was to provide reassurance and accountability to the public regarding the construction and progress of the LRT project. The commissioner held that this was almost a total failure and clearly the public has not been properly engaged by the new mayor and council, after two-and-a-half months, being told simply ‘’we are focusing on getting the system up and running.” The public deserves better.

Neither the previous council nor the current council have responded publicly to the inquiry commissioner’s devastating report that the City chose unproven technology for the trains that strained the limits of what an LRT system could do. In other words, we got a lemon.

And in other words, there is most likely liability and negligence to be shared by OLRT-C, RTG, RTM, and the City of Ottawa. This must be settled through legal means. These issues need to be shared and explored in-camera and when possible in public.

There is much that is troublesome and undisclosed that should  require legal and other clarifications. One outstanding fact disclosed by the commission stated that a significant length of track needs to be reconstructed. When and where and how much cost and delay will this take?

There is much more information that needs to be exposed and made public, not the least of which will be very significant costs to the city’s budget. As the commissioner has stated “some of the LRT’s problems have still not been fixed.”

We have an LRT system that is dysfunctional, with escalating costs, unreliable service, unpredictable future, and uncertain management; and we have an OC-Transpo bus service that is bleeding costs ($85 million), and providing really bad service.

Stage 2 LRT costs have escalated with significant delays; and no funding available for Stage 3 Kanata and Barrhaven.

Bob Chiarelli