TORONTO – Ontario’s Transportation Minister says a public inquiry examining Ottawa’s light rail transit system will look at issues related to safety, technical elements, value for money and liability.
Caroline Mulroney says the government is still working to define the scope of the investigation, including appointing a commissioner.
She says a budget for the investigation has not yet been established, but that it will proceed in a “fiscally responsible manner.”
The minister says she expects the investigation to provide recommendations sometime next year, but could not give a more precise timeline.
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Ontario Government Requests Public Inquiry into Issues Affecting Ottawa’s LRT System
Announcing the investigation on Wednesday, the minister said that the issues affecting Stage 1 of the project are unacceptable and disappointing.
He added that the province, which is a financing partner for the project, needs to be certain that the city will be able to successfully carry out the remaining work.
“That system has been running for two years … and there have been a number of incidents, including trains not running for almost 54 days. So we have to get answers, ”Mulroney said at a news conference Thursday.
“We are trying to understand what went wrong. This has been a project managed by the municipality from the beginning with a number of players involved on the hiring side, on the technical side, on the security side, so we are going to analyze the actions of various players. “
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Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said in a statement that he welcomes the province’s decision and will respond more fully when the scope of the investigation is established.
“As I said over the last year, my number one goal is to get RTG and Alstom to fix LRT and start delivering the world-class transit service that Ottawa paid for and transit passengers deserve,” he said.
The $ 2 billion line was opened two years ago, and there have been five derailments in that time, according to the Federal Transportation Safety Board.
Other problems included a large sinkhole that emerged on a major downtown street during construction, door jams that caused significant delays, and salt fog from the roads that affected electrical works.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
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