The city\u0027s former top elected official issues a public statement in response to the public inquiry report issued Nov. 30.
He also praised the contributions and integrity of now former city manager Steve Kanellakos, who quit two days before the release of the report that contained harsh words about the conduct of both men in the lead-up to the LRT launch in 2019.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
“At the end of the day, I take full responsibility for the project’s shortcomings,” Watson wrote in his statement. Watson, meanwhile, “had accurate information about trial running and the decision to change the testing criteria, but failed to provide that information to Council” — which could have acted on it, the report said.Article content
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Ottawa's transit woes take a licking in LRT inquiry reportThe private and public partners behind the $2.1-billion Ottawa light rail transit (LRT) train wreck did not get off lightly in the Nov. 30 LRT Inquiry report. Former Ottawa mayor Jim Watson, who also starred in the failure of leadership during the so-called “freedom convoy” occupation, got full credit for misguiding city council and the public as to where the LRT system was heading, demanding it start early despite it not being ready. Abruptly departed city manager Steve Kanellakos and former transportation manager John Manconi joined Watson as incompetents whose use of WhatsApp to hide the truth from city councillors share the shame stage. The Rideau Transit Group (RTG), selected by private sector builders to lead the project, were criticized as inexperienced, short-cut artists. The wheels literally came off the poorly selected and untried Alstom Citadel Spirit trains. Two derailments to date, one large sinkhole delay, poorly designed tracks, and consistently unreliable service: all are hung up in the scathing LRT report. To its credit, the LRT Inquiry—itself costing around $10-million—offered detailed explanations of what went wrong with the malfunctioning light-rail system. The report dissected complex interactions and technical problems with the 12.5 km-long Stage 1 LRT Confederation route. Matters like failed electric switches, overhead wiring failures, the poor relationship between Alstom-Thales, the gap between an initial safety auditor and an independent certifier were among the lesser-known problems that the inquiry exposed. One area explored in the report was the geographic risk that played a role in the Rideau Street sinkhole. I doubt, however, that type of risk is over, and as consultants’ documents that I received indicated, the issue of geographic risks was never fully seen or debated by city council. As someone granted limited standing in those LRT inquiry proceedings—largely based on my freedom of information (FOI) experiences in trying, despite ma
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