New LRT subcommittee to look into city authority over LRT contract

File photo of an Ottawa LRT train.

The first meeting of the city's newly created Light Rail Subcommittee will discuss a motion that suggests giving council more authority over the terms of the project agreement for Stage 1.

When Stage 1 was approved in 2012, city council at the time gave authority to the city manager to negotiate, approve, execute, deliver, amend and extend the project agreement and associated ancillary agreements with the LRT project. However, the Ottawa LRT public inquiry's final report found that former city manager Steve Kanellakos "deliberately misled council" about failures during the trial running period ahead of the system's launch in 2019. The city also lessened the project agreement requirements needed to launch the system and reduced the number of trains that the Rideau Transit Group had to provide on launch.

Kanellakos retired two days before the release of the report. Chief Financial Officer Wendy Stephanson has taken over the role in the interim while the city looks to hire a new permanent city manager.

The motion, to be debated at Thursday's meeting, calls on the subcommittee and council to revoke the interim city manager's delegated authority with respect to the Stage 1 project agreement, requiring her instead to forward any amendments to council for approval. It also asks that the interim city manager bring forward a revised proposal for delegated authority that allows council to maintain substantive decision-making while allowing staff to manage minor or technical matters.

Subcommittee chair Coun. Steve Desroches says he expects the motion will be modified before it's approved, as he does not support it in its current state.

"I support looking at the delegated authority process as a first step," he told CTV News Ottawa by phone. "I don't support the motion as drafted. Our first step should be to understand the process."

Desroches noted this is a new subcommittee that was created in the wake of a public inquiry into the construction of the Confederation Line. The subcommittee doesn’t make any operational decisions, which are the purview of the transit commission, but is focused on oversight recommendations. He said he believes decisions to launch Stage 2 should still be handled by experts and should not be what he called “a political decision.”

Coun. Shawn Menard first moved the motion that is coming before the subcommittee this week at a council meeting on Dec. 14, 2022. Council decided to refer it to the subcommittee, with Menard saying the motion was written before the city had an oversight subcommittee dedicated to the LRT. Menard is not a member of the Light Rail Subcommittee.

Speaking to CTV News Monday, Menard said his intention with the motion was to align with recommendations made by the provincial inquiry into light rail. He said he also hoped it would help provide transparency when it comes to Stage 2.

"For the Stage 2 launch, how would we publicize testing passes and fails?" he said. "A lot of that information was kept secret in Stage 1, so the hope is we get more information about Stage 2."

While the motion does reference in-camera discussions with the current term of councillors, the motion was drafted before a marathon five-hour in-camera session in January during which councillors were briefed on a settlement between the city and RTG over notices of default. The terms of the settlement remain secret.

Menard said the fact that the motion had to be delayed until after such a major decision was unfortunate, but he added that information is flowing from that decision that would mean changes to the project agreement, so adopting his motion would give give council more authority over any major changes, while keeping smaller, more technical issues in the hands of staff experts. 

While he does not sit on the subcommittee, he intends to attend the meeting this week and ask questions.

"I hope the subcommittee takes its work seriously," Menard said of the formation of this new subcommittee. "I hope the LRT inquiry recommendations are adopted in full and we don't minimize some of the serious issues that were raised, including the actions of the previous mayor. I'm looking forward to the subcommittee's work."

If the motion is approved at subcommittee, it will rise to full city council during the Feb. 22 meeting.