City council won't debate whether to hold emergency LRT meetings

Three days after an Ottawa light rail train went off the tracks, shutting down the Confederation Line indefinitely, city council avoided a debate over whether tohold emergency meetings to discuss the system's "serious malfunctions."

Sunday's derailment was the second in six weeks, and had been discussed at length on Monday attransit commission. Then Tuesday,the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) statedthe train had derailed earlier than previously discussedand travelled acrossa bridge in its derailed state.

• LRT train derailed before entering station, then travelled across a bridge, says TSB
• LRT fix could take 3 weeks after latest derailment

At city council on Wednesday, Kitchissippi ward Coun. Jeff Leiper called for biweekly meetings of the transit commission until the train line is running again, as well as an emergencymeeting of all council members before the end of the week.

What Leiper didn't do before moving this motion, was give a heads up to transit commission chair Coun. Allan Hubley, displeasing Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson who urged his colleagues to vote the motion down.

The motion needed 18 votes, or ofcity councillors,but only 16votedto suspend procedural rules to at least discuss Leiper'smotion, instead of waiting for their nextmeeting three weeks away.

Six councillors sided with Watson, who later explained the municipality's committee schedule already sees several meetings per week, and he called Leiper's motion for more meetings "political theatre."

"I don't support never-ending meetings," Watsontold reporters. "Our staff need to spend their scarce time resources on fixing the problem."

WATCH | Mayor Watson on voting down Leiper motion:

I dont support never-ending meetings:' Watson opposes emergency transit meetings after second derailment

3 years ago

Duration 1:10

Mayor Jim Watson says resources are better spent working to fix the LRT rather than preparing for meetings. An attempt to introduce biweekly transit commission meetings was defeated on Wednesday, despite the LRT seeing its second derailment in six weeks over the weekend.

Judicial inquiry, cancelling contract

The stage is set, however, for larger discussions on the city's light rail system in October.

The mayor said the finance and economic development committee would receive a private briefing at its next meeting Oct. 5to go over legal options related to its contract with Rideau Transit Group (RTG) and its maintenance arm, Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM).

The maintenance armis in default on its contract and the city's lawyers have aBritish firm examining how that happened.

Meanwhile, three councillors signalled they will have motions to debate on Oct. 13.

Coun. Catherine McKenneywants council to formally request a judge conduct a publicinquiry of Ottawa's LRT, dating back to 2012 when the contract for Stage 1 was approved,and looking into how city council delegated authority to city staff.

The Somerset ward councillorpointed out a municipality is allowed to request an inquiry under provincial lawsin order to investigate supposed breach of trust by a council member, employeeor contractor.

Coun. Diane Deans, meanwhile, wants staff to look at cancelling the 30-year maintenance contract, an idea raised during the train's problem-plagued first year of operation.

Transit chair Hubley and the mayorwill also seek free transit duringthe month of December at the next council meeting.

'Alstom, Alstom, Alstom'

Ottawa's outgoing transportation manager said it is not yet definitive where the train first derailed on Sunday, even though TSB investigators said it happened before Tremblay Station.

John Manconi, who retires next week after athree-decade municipal career, also maintained "everything isfixable."

"I'll leave with one word. It's 'Alstom, Alstom, Alstom,'" said Manconi, referring to the light railsubcontractor.

"They need to step up and get into Ottawa with an army of engineers."

The mayor intends to meetwith executives from the groups that have builtand maintained the city's light rail system in the coming daysto relay the message Ottawans aren't pleased with the level of service.

Watson pointed outOttawa's LRToperated reliably for many months,but now the city needs to regain people's confidence.

"When I'm on the system and it's working, it's a really great system," said Watson. "But wecan't call it great when you have these serious malfunctions."