City Careers In Jeopardy Over Current LRT Fiasco

“This is now a second issue in less than half a year, I keep telling people the tunnels are safe, the infrastructure is safe. I’m trying to maintain public confidence and trust in the system. Here’s another issue in the same tunnel.”

River Councillor Riley Brockington on the St. Laurent LRT station

It’s nice to see that councillors are speaking up about the safety of the Confederation LIne light-rail project.

I mean wow. The roof was supposedly fixed at St. Laurent last time and now the roof has “disrupted” again … whatever that means.

And the excuse is that the first crew in for repairs didn’t know what it was looking for. Huh? How do you miss falling concrete? How do you miss water leaks? How do you miss concrete delamination?

Your agent could probably see those things to his untrained eye and I don’t have the faintest idea about the characteristics of concrete, though I have seen my share of leaks.

How do you miss that? Why in one of the memos released on the “minor” problem does it say that material left from the first so-called repair was a contributor to the current problem. Why does the city have netting up to protect passengers now boarding at St. Laurent? To prevent pigeons from nesting?

Repeatedly Ottawans are subjected to the horribly cliched phrase “an abundance of caution.” An abundance of caution my butt. How many trips to the St. Laurent station does it take to fix this problem? Is this a bigger problem than we have been told? If you check the words “abundance of caution” in the dictionary, one of the meanings is “we screwed up again.” Wonder if the OC Transpo logo is pictured beside the definition.

Brockington says he’s trying to maintain public trust in the transit system. Noble idea but hopeless. Read the provincial LRT inquiry on the lies, misrepresentations, the withholding of information, the incompetence and the lack of values in the construction of the Confederation Line. Confederation? If the confederation of Canada went like Ottawa’s LRT, Quebec would have left a long time ago.

Trust is easy to lose, almost impossible to get back. Sorry Riley. I know you mean well but you’re trying to pick up mercury.

Yes, OC Transpo has a long history of “abundance of caution.” Releasing a train that wasn’t ready. Releasing a train that derailed and then derailed again.

Oh that the dead people in the Fallowfield and Westboro bus crashes could speak. “Abundance of caution” would not be the first words to leave their lips.

Ottawans paid billions to have a serviceable light-rail and bus system. Stop screwing up. You’ve ruined a good public transit system.

Get it right before Ottawans demand that firings are the cure. Maybe we’ve already passed that point.

But here’s something we can say with certainty. The careers of the city manager, the mayor and council are on the line if this project doesn’t work and get finished pronto. Stop sitting around saying nothing and get this $6.4 billion disaster fixed.

If not, senior people at city hall will lose their jobs come next election.

Good riddance.

Ken Gray

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