'Egregious violations of public trust': LRT rushed into service, commission finds - CBC.ca
Both city officials and the companies that built Ottawa's troubled Confederation Line made "egregious" errors during the construction and testing of the $2.1-billion LRT — errors that raise questions about whether the city is fit to oversee such massive infrastructure projects, according to the final report from the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry.
The city and Rideau Transit Group (RTG), which includes SNC-Lavalin, ACS Infrastructure and Ellis Don, lost sight of the public interest in their race to finish the LRT, which was late by more than 15 months, according to the report.
It's clear the Confederation Line "was rushed into service" by RTG, which was under financial pressure due to construction delays and political pressure from the city, says the report.
Justice William Hourigan, the inquiry's commissioner, released his 664-page report, complete with 103 recommendations for how to prevent similar issues in the future, on Wednesday morning.
It's the culmination of almost a year's work by the commission, which received a million documents, interviewed more than 90 witnesses and heard from more than 40 of them during 19 days of public hearings this past summer.
In his conclusion, Hourigan wrote: "While human errors are understandable and expected, deliberate malfeasance is unacceptable in a public project. When participants deliberately mislead the public regarding the status of a public undertaking, they violate a fundamental obligation that underlies all public endeavours."
Hourigan said there were many issues that led to the wide array of problems that the Confederation Line experienced, including the two derailments that occurred last year.
However, he singled out two instances in the project "that stand out as egregious violations of public trust."
Misleading timelines 'unconscionable'
He blasted RTG and its construction arm, OLRT-C, for repeatedly giving the city completion dates that it knew were "entirely unrealistic."
"It was unconscionable that RTG and its main sub-contractor knowingly gave the City inaccurate information about when they would finish building the LRT," Hourigan wrote in his report, adding that the gambit failed on a commercial level and further strained RTG's already tense relationship with the city.
Worse, said Hourigan, is that the public suffered from the repeated misinformation.
"The leadership at RTG and OLRT-C seemed to have given no thought to the fact that the provision of this misinformation adversely impacted the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The people of Ottawa trusted RTG and OLRT-C to be straight with the City and tell them honestly when the system would be ready.
"The Commission finds that RTG and OLRT-C betrayed that trust," he wrote.
Harsh words for former mayor, manager
Hourigan also had harsh words for both former city manager Steve Kanellakos, who resigned Monday, and former mayor Jim Watson for withholding information from the rest of council about the final testing phase of the Confederation Line, known as the trial running.
Council wasn't told that the testing criteria for the LRT had been lowered to allow it to pass its final testing phase. "This conduct irreparably compromised the legal oversight ability of Council and raises serious concerns about whether the City of Ottawa can properly complete significant infrastructure projects," Hourigan wrote.
It also "prevented councillors from fulfilling their statutory duties to the people of Ottawa. Moreover, it is part of a concerning approach taken by senior City officials to control the narrative by the nondisclosure of vital information or outright misrepresentation," he found.
"Worse, because the conduct was wilful and deliberate, it leads to serious concerns about the good faith of senior City staff and raises questions about where their loyalties lie.
"It is difficult to imagine the successful completion of any significant project while these attitudes prevail within the municipal government."
He added there is no reason to believe the conduct during the trial running was an "aberration or that transparency has improved within the city."
A litany of problems
Hourigan found that the Confederation Line' problems were a consequence of myriad factors. Those include:
- The city chose an Alstom train with unproven technology that strained the limits of what an LRT system could do.
- RTG did not coordinate the work of its subcontractors and failed to ensure the integration of the various systems and components.
- The relationship between the city and RTG became too adversarial, and Ottawa residents "face the spectre of a largely dysfunctional partnership operating and maintaining its light rail system for decades."
- The City rushed the LRT system into service before it was ready, largely due to political and public pressure.
- RTG and its subcontractors did not provide adequate maintenance.
The recommendations also include that an independent monitor keep city council and the transit commission informed about ongoing changes and issues.
Hourigan also recommends that all levels of government examine whether a public-private-partnership (P3) contract model, used here for the first time ever in a transit project in Ontario, is appropriate.
Failure to collaborate
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Hourigan and the inquiry's lawyers hammered home a key theme: that the city and RTG failed to work collaboratively, to the detriment of both the project and the residents of Ottawa.
"The people who live in this city, who visit it, deserve to have confidence that the LRT system is safe and that it will get them to where they need to go, on time, reliably, every time they get on the train," said co-lead counsel Kate McGrann.
"People and entities engaged in public infrastructure projects like this must always, always always keep that public interest at the forefront of everything they do," she said. "And that, as a guiding principle, was lacking at times — very key times — in this project."
Provincial taxpayers deserve accountability for their money.- Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney
McGrann said it was the commission's hope that the 103 recommendations would not just ensure the existing LRT network runs smoothly, but also guide the line's Stage 2 expansions.
Ontario's Progressive Conservative government called the public inquiry in November 2021, after Ottawa city council voted against a judicial inquiry and settled on an investigation by the city's auditor general.
In a statement, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney said the province would review the findings closely over the next few days.
"As a funding partner, provincial taxpayers deserve accountability for their money," wrote Mulroney. "We will continue making sure that Ontario taxpayers and transit riders get the best value for their money possible."
Both the PCs and the previous Liberal government invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the design and construction of the LRT network.
Following the first meeting of the new city council term Wednesday morning, newly elected Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he had not yet seen the report.
Sutcliffe is scheduled to address the media later this afternoon.
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