Ottawa Light Rail Has Big Funding Problem
Ottawa’s troubled light-rail project has more trouble.
A report to the city’s light-rail subcommittee says the already-over-budget Stage 2 project has unspecified “residual budget pressure” that will be discussed “at a later date.” The report will be presented to the LRT subcommittee on Friday.
A “residual budget pressure” can be from unexpected costs, revenue projection shortfalls and costs increase. The report does not discuss exactly what those pressures might be.
Stage 2 has had set aside more than $287 million in a contingency fund and $238 million of that has already been spent.
The report attributes the budget pressure to a vague description of “unforeseen costs” and “improvements.”
As of Oct. 31, 2024 just less than $4 billion has been spent on Stage 2 LRT.
The west end Stage 2 is two years late.
The report is below:
English Report – Stage 2 Construction Update LRSC
For You:
What’s Plante’s Sprung Structure Agenda? BENN
Senior Transit Pass: Way Too Much: MULVIHILL
Somewhere Diane Deans Is Smiling: QUOTABLE
Tierney, Stay Away From Seniors: WHOPPER WATCH
Transpo Flying Blind On Ridership: THE VOTER
Bookmark The Bulldog, click here
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
The transit budget has $80M immediate payment once the LRT 2/4 East and South are in service and $120M when the West LRT is in service. That probably doesn’t help
So they had a contingency of $152M which has already been almost doubled with the addition of $135M for a total of $287M which, with the exception of $49M, they’ve blown through already and they have a year or more of work still to come.
Then they have the “residual budget pressure” still to be revealed at a “future date” Surely to heavens these people could be expected to understand that 1) people are fed up with information about the LRT being held back; 2) OC Transpo is already deeply in the hole and can’t afford any more secrets to be sprung on it at some unnamed future date and 3) if the City is to do responsible planning and budgetting, they need to have all the information on the table even if it’s related to future costs.
I thought one of the reasons for setting up the Light Rail Subcommittee was to keep a closer eye on what’s unfolding with the whole light rail system. To be told that there’s a budget pressure coming up that OC Transpo will tell you about sometime in the future is not how you achieve good oversight of the system.
Decisions have already been made to implement huge cuts at OC Transpo including to seniors, kids and teens fares as well as to services through cutting thousands of hours of bus service and reducing off-peak train services. Will there be more cuts coming as a result of this upcoming budget pressure? Are they coming back after the budget is approved to ask for more money? All of that should have been on the table and should be part of the consideration of the 2025 transit budget.
“unforeseen costs” and “improvements.”
Really???!!! Like everything has gone exactly as planned with the LRT. And what could they possibly improve?
A quick note to those conscientious councillors who take their responsibilities for oversight seriously: make sure that the capital budget that is to be voted on in a couple of weeks has an extra $400 million in contingency funding for the LRT. $100 million for the Stage 2 expansion and $300 million for the Stage 1 not fully covered by insurance 1 sink hole on Rideau Street.