City of Ottawa settlement with Rideau Transit Group resets relationship, sides say
The city of Ottawa and its LRT contractor have reached a settlement the two sides say will reset their relationship after years of legal fighting.
The city and Rideau Transit Group issued a joint statement on Friday announcing the out-of-court agreement, saying it "resolves several issues between them and resets their relationship to focus on the delivery of safe and reliable transit service to the people of Ottawa."
The sides had been suing each other—the city launched a $131 million lawsuit in 2021 over the Confederation Line's problems and delays, and RTG countersued for $225 million.
The city was withholding nearly $70 million in payments over the ongoing dispute. Both parties have refused to say publicly how much money is involved in the settlement.
Council voted Wednesday night to direct the city's transit services chief Renee Amilcar to "negotiate, finalize and execute" the agreement, after hours of closed-door discussions.
RTG acknowledges default
The city issued a notice of default in Oct. 2021 after derailments on Aug. 8 and Sept. 19, 2021, the latter of which shut the line down for nearly two months.
The agreement resolves that "through RTG’s acknowledgement of the Default and the City’s confirmation of the immediate cure based on RTG’s rigorous plan to address the issues that led to the derailments and come to a sustainable resolution of the axle bearing assembly issue," the statement said.
The agreement says RTG is committed to resolving the issues before the Stage 2 east extension to Orleans opens. That's scheduled for 2025.
"In addition, RTG has and will continue to implement various interim mitigation measures to ensure the reliability of O-Train Line 1."
The Oct. 2021 notice of default was the second one the city issued against RTG. The first was in March 2020, which the statement announcing the settlement does not mention.
"The City acknowledges the work RTG has done and will continue to do to ensure the people of Ottawa receive safe and reliable service on O-Train Line 1 and will continue to monitor RTG’s progress," the statement said.
The agreement also includes a promise by RTG/RTM to fill positions and hire more people to help fix issues, as CTV News reported Wednesday night.
The two sides have also settled several disputes concerning RTG's performance and the city's administration of the contract during the maintenance phase of the project.
Commission recommended cooperation
The agreement comes after the public inquiry into Ottawa's light rail transit project released its final report.
Commissioner Justice William Hourigan noted the relationship between the city and RTG was "adversarial" at critical stages of construction and maintenance, and "this fact contributed to problems with the OLRT1 project."
The city and RTG say they will move forward with a goal of "improved partnership and collaboration" as recommended in the commission report.
"The settlement demonstrates both parties’ acknowledgement of the importance of cooperation, which the Commission Report urged," the statement said, adding that the agreement reflects a number of the commission's recommendations.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.