Ford: Ottawa LRT project 'stunk to high heaven'

Fallout from the damning Ottawa LRT public inquiry report continued on Thursday, with Premier Doug Ford saying the project "stunk to high heaven" and that senior city of Ottawa officials did a "terrible job."

Ford's government called the inquiry headed by Justice William Hourigan, which released its final report on Wednesday. The report said the construction and maintenance of the Confederation Line was plagued by persistent failures in leadership and saw "egregious violations of the public trust" by senior city staff and Rideau Transit Group.

On Thursday, Ford called a lot of the findings of the report "frustrating."

"We saw Mayor Watson not being transparent with his councillors. We saw the city manager having to step down. It was just absolute in shambles, and stunk to high heaven," he told reporters in Toronto. "Thank goodness we did the inquiry."

"I think they did a terrible job," he added. "Mayor Watson—I'm being very frank here—wasn't transparent, he didn't oversee the project properly, and he's gone and so is the city manager and some other people that worked on it. They high-tailed out of there because they knew it was a disaster. And the people of Ottawa knew it was a disaster.

"The people of Ottawa finally have an answer."

Hourigan's report listed myriad reasons behind the problems with the $2.1-billion project. But he singled out former city manager Steve Kanellakos for what he called a "deliberate effort" to mislead council, and Watson and former transit chief John Manconi for hiding information from council.

Kanellakos resigned on Monday ahead of the report's release. Manconi retired last year. Watson did not run for re-election in October - his spokesman said Wednesday he is on a trip out of town.

Hourigan's report found, among other things, that the city chose unproven technology for the trains, RTG didn't coordinate the work of its subcontractors, the city rushed the LRT system into service before it was ready due to political pressure, and RTG and its subcontractors did not provide adequate maintenance.

Former councillor calls for apologies, resignation

Former transit chair Diane Deans called on Watson to apologize and for Coun. Allan Hubley, her successor as transit chair, to resign from council.

"In all of my years, I have never seen a report so damning of city hall," she told Newstalk 580 CFRA on Wednesday. "The people responsible for this, they need to be held to account. I know most of them jumped off the ship before it sunk. But in my estimation, Allan Hubley can no longer sit at the council table and make decisions. He has lost the public trust, he has breached it.

"He needs to do the right thing today and tender his resignation, and if he doesn't, council needs to ask for it."

Deans also pointed to Coun. Riley Brockington, who said on Twitter a colleague on council is still chewing him out for supporting the LRT public inquiry.

"I just found that unbelievable," Deans said. "That some members of council still sitting at that table now think the problem is with those of us who were seeking accountability, transparency, and honesty at city hall, and that if we'd all just shut up about it, the public would never know.

"These are public dollars…and this is a breach of public trust."

Deans also called on the current council to ask for an extension of the public inquiry to look at Stage 2, which is currently under construction and behind schedule.

"This council has an opportunity to do the right thing," she said. "If they don’t, then they’re missing the point. There’s been significant erosion of public trust."

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said Wednesday he has asked city staff to develop a plan to implement the report's key recommendations.

Catherine McKenney, a former councillor and mayoral candidate, said they found the report "discouraging and unfortunate, but not surprising."

"We knew that we had been misled. We knew that that train had not operated for anywhere near 12 days. And we always knew that the culture at the city of Ottawa that had been created by the former mayor was one that left people out of decision-making," McKenney told CTV News.

"I think that people in this city should be worried. We really do have an erosion in trust at our city."