Watson Culture Lives On At City Hall

Beacon Hill-Cyrville Councillor Tim Tierney has been on council since 2010. A major part of his job is oversight.

Obviously now with the three-month deadline extension of the east light-rail line, oversight has been lacking on the biggest municipal project in Ottawa history. If any project in this community’s history deserved oversight, LRT is it.

During the years of mayor Jim Watson, collegiality was the watch-word on the conduct of Ottawa City Council. What it translated into realistically was not to ask embarrassing questions at committees and council. Thus oversight was impossible. But good public relations triumphed … until the reality of poor goverence became public, as it inevitably does.