WATCH LIVE Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson testified at 2 p.m. ET:
The history of Wednesday’s inquiry is below.
A trio of current and former members of the Ottawa Transit Commission believe they have not received key information about the reliability of the Confederate line in the days and weeks before its launch in 2019, the city’s light rail survey said yesterday.
These sentiments were shared by councilors Catherine McKenna and Diane Deans and Civic Commissioner Sarah Wright-Gilbert, who testified in a panel with Coun. Alan Hubley, the current chairman of the committee.
Some of their concerns were related to information shared in informal WhatsApp messages between senior city officials, including Hubble, Mayor Jim Watson and now former OC Transpo chief John Manconi.
Dean, who chaired the transit committee until 2014 and was on the city’s finance and economic development committee until 2018, said she only found out about the WhatsApp group when Manconi was questioned about it on Tuesday.
“It was a confirmation that much of what I offered in public in the interviews was, in fact, absolutely so – that there was more to what was seen than that all the information was not shared publicly,” Deans told commission adviser Chris Grisdale.
“We are a public corporation that spends public dollars and we should not hide this kind of information from the public eye.”
On Wednesday, a public inquiry into the Ottawa light rail line went into detail about the system’s shortcomings before launch and whether the information was adequately shared with the council and the transit commission. (Francis Ferland / CBC)
“Flying in the Dark”
Many of Grisdale’s questions focused on preparations for the launch of the $ 2.1 billion Confederate line on September 14, 2019, which was more than a year behind.
Referring to testimony earlier this week from Thomas Prendergast, a highly respected transport expert and key consultant in Ottawa on the project, Grisdale asked Hubble if he had ever discussed Prendergast’s concerns about “readiness for support” with Manconi via WhatsApp.
Hubble said this was possible, noting that he believed the council had eventually learned of these concerns through briefings or notes. The details shared through WhatsApp will not be “no different” from other confidential briefings given to committee chairs, he testified.
However, Deans, McKenney and Wright-Gilbert told the investigation that the information never reached them.
“For me, a person who has information is like giving the head of the jury all the details, the most important details of the case. But this man doesn’t tell the rest of the jury, “Wright-Gilbert testified.
“Without this information, we – as members of the commission – wandered in the dark, trying to understand why suddenly our brand new system has all these problems that are accumulating on top of each other.
The revelation of the WhatsApp group, Deans added, is a confirmation that there is an “internal cycle of information that we are not all familiar with.”
Civil Transit Commissioner Sarah Wright-Gilbert testified Wednesday that the lack of information around the Confederate line made her feel as if she were “looking in the dark” for answers. (Matthew Kupfer / CBC)
Performance standards under the microscope
The inquiry has already heard that during the LRT’s 12-day trial cycle, the city has relaxed the performance standards that the line must meet before it can be opened to the public.
When asked about this, Hubble said he remembered discussions about changing the criteria, but did not participate. He agreed that he knew things had changed before the council.
“Yes, I knew before them,” Hubble told Grisdale. „Count deans, such as a [former] chair, can confirm that this is not unique to transit or LRT. Each committee chair had such staff briefings. “
Dean agreed, but said that if she had been in Hubble’s place, she would have shared that information “in time.”
“I am just shocked [the standards were relaxed]. This is not what Ма Mr Manconi has firmly promised council members in September 2018. ”
Grisdale also asked Hubble about a series of “report cards” issued during the test period, with the line running a few days and failing others – and whether his fellow advisers would like to be alerted to the results.
“Of course, everyone wants to know as much information as possible,” Hubley said. “However, in a vacuum or in the context of the situation, if we published the results every day, it would cause a lot of problems.”
The investigation is scheduled to resume on Thursday, with consultants Derek Win and Sergio Mamoliti testifying in the morning and Watson appearing in the afternoon.
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