Public Works and Infrastructure Committee chair Coun. Tim Tierney joined Mayor Mark Sutcliffe on 4550 Bank Street to launch the city’s annual construction season, unveiling nearly $700 million in infrastructure projects ranging from road rehabilitation and bridge repairs to drinking water, wastewater and stormwater upgrades. City officials said it will involve roughly 700 infrastructure projects across the capital this year.

Under the major investment is the $50-million Bank Street widening upgrade, a push that Sutcliffe said will help prepare Ottawa for an expected population boom over the next 25 years.

The corridor serves as a key commuter route into Ottawa’s south end, an area that has seen rapid residential growth in recent years.

“This Bank Street upgrade project is tremendously important to serve the growth that we’re seeing in the south of the city, and you can’t build a small city, an urban area with rural infrastructure,” Councillor Steven Desroches said.

Intended to improve access not only for drivers, but also for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users, Desroches noted that residents currently cannot safely walk or cycle to nearby destinations like the Fred Barrett Arena.

The multi-year project will add a new four-lane roadway, sidewalks on both sides of Bank Street and five protected intersections, while upgrading underground infrastructure throughout the corridor.

Desroches noted that Ottawa’s population growth is projected to reach 500,000 people in the next 25 years, making roads and sidewalks investment, as well as water infrastructure a critical point.

The announcement comes as residents continue voicing frustration over worsening congestion tied to roadwork and transit-related lane closures across the city, particularly along Highway 417. When asked by a reporter about these concerns, Sutcliffe acknowledged the disruptions and said the city is trying to find “better solutions” to manage construction impacts.

“We need to be more mindful of what motorists and commuters are going through, we’re doing everything we can to improve our roads and improve our infrastructure in the city,” Sutcliffe said.

“There’s going to be a little bit of pain, but we have to do the best job possible,” Sutcliffe said.

In a separate interview with iPolitics, Coun. Tierney said Ottawa has increasingly shifted toward bundling infrastructure work into larger construction phases. He said the approach shortens timelines and avoids repeated disruptions caused by piecemeal roadwork.

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The Liaison Strategies poll, commissioned by the Ottawa Compass and iPolitics, shows Sutcliffe’s approval rating on every major issue is below water in advance of this fall’s municipal election.

The mayor performs the worst on transit, with 71 per cent of voters disapproving of his handling on the file. His best performance is on crime, where 48 per cent disapprove, compared to 44 per cent who support his approach.

A majority of respondents offered a negative assessment of Sutcliffe’s performance on the other issues, including homelessness (58 per cent disapproved), traffic (57 per cent), housing affordability (54 per cent) and inflation (51 per cent).

For the automated phone poll — conducted between April 11-12 — Liaison Strategies based the results on response from 1,000 Ottawa voters. The data was matched with the city’s profile from the 2021 Census, with the results broken down by region in the city, gender, age and language.

The margin of error is reported as 3.09 percentage points, though is higher for sub-samples.

The mayor’s only positive approval ratings in the poll came on the questions of crime and inflation. On crime, he polled above water among west residents (49 per cent approved) and those 65 and older (53 per cent). When it came to inflation, only those in the 65+ crowd gave him a positive approval (47 per cent to 44 that disapproved).

The Ottawa Compass and iPolitics have partnered with Liaison to provide exclusive polling data on the 2026 Ottawa municipal election.

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On Tuesday morning, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe met with Ontario’s Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria in city hall as part of Sutcliffe’s Mayor’s Breakfast conversations. The two discussed issues surrounding transportation and public transit in Ottawa. 

During the meeting, Sarkaria expressed that he believed there was a “good case” for a ring road in Ottawa, and that the province was open to examining the possibility further. Sarkaria said that the conversations being had on the possibility are “very preliminary.” 

The OC Transpo LRT and provincial ownership of Highway 174 were the central topics discussed during Tuesday’s meeting at city hall. 

Sarkaria reiterated a promise made by Doug Ford during his visit to Ottawa on Monday, that the province will upload the cost of Ottawa’s LRT system. Ford met with Sutcliffe on the sidelines of a summit hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, where he said he made a commitment that Queen’s Park would take over the O-Train system. 

Sutcliffe confirmed during a press conference on Tuesday that the province had also committed to taking ownership of Highway 174, which runs in the city’s east end. Shifting ownership of the highway will be a multi-step process, Sutcliffe said. 

Last summer, the city approved a plan for the next 20 years of transportation in Ottawa, dubbed the 2046 Transportation Master Plan. During the debates over what to include in the plan, Tierney advocated for the inclusion of a ring road. 

Plans for a ring road were not included in the plan which was released in July. Tierney welcomes the newfound openness from the province and the mayor towards a ring road as a turning point for the project. 

Tierney’s outlook on the future of such a project has changed like “night and day,” the Ward 11 councillor said. 

“I’m glad everyone’s seeing the light,” Tierney said. “I think we heard the public outcry, and now things are changing,” he added.

Constituents have come to Tierney with concerns over traffic congestion in the city, which Tierney said has reached a boiling point. Beyond that, implementing a ring road in the city would help to reduce pollution, he said. 

“If we can remove traffic from the 417, the 416, and move it around, it will make it much easier for everyone, cut down on pollution, and allow for people to spend more time at home,” Tierney said. 

The province has been receptive to concerns from Ottawa residents, which has led to the potential project being considered more seriously than it has been previously, by both the city and Queen’s Park. 

“I’m happy to hear it’s back on the radar,” Tierney said, “the province has certainly heard from residents in Ottawa.” The existence of a ring road comes hand in hand with an improved LRT system, the councillor added.

The O-Train, which has suffered significant technical and financial issues over the past year, being under provincial ownership is compatible with provincial assistance for a ring road project in the city, he said. 

Conversations between city officials and the province have picked up steam in recent months, Tierney said, bringing greater attention to the prospective project. 

“We’re definitely moving ahead… now things are changing,” Tierney said, expressing optimism as he described “talking quite a bit” with Minister Sarkaria.

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Troy Charter, the city’s interim general manager of transit services, told council’s transit committee on Thursday that it would happen in May. 

“Every effort is being made to accelerate the work that is required,” said Charter. “We’re trying to accelerate as much as we can to restore the service for our customers.” 

The current issues with Line 1 were first identified in January, when providers Rideau Transit Group (RTG) and Alstom found spalling on the Line’s vehicles’ Cartridge Bearing Assemblies (CBAs).

Since then, long wait times and overcrowding on key light rail platforms across Ottawa have been ongoing. Delays to full service were further pushed back when RTG and Alstom discovered additional safety concerns while replacing the CBAs.

Charter said he understands the timelines offered for return to service “may be disappointing for our customers,” but OC Transpo’s commitment is “always to support the safe operation of our service.”

“We do anticipate that our customers will see the effects of gradual improvements to capacity on Line 1 in the coming weeks, and our work on Line 1 will ensure that we’re ready to keep customers moving during the summer festival season.”

Coun. Tim Tierney (Beacon Hill-Cyrville) highlighted the link between Line 1 and the East End expansion of the Line, which continues to be delayed. 

“Obviously Line 1 is critical, but there’s a lot in the east end, there is a real linkage, so we need a commitment when we’re going to get an update specific to the east end,” said Tierney.

“If we don’t have trains running by September in the east end, that has massive impacts on the entire system.” 

Charter confirmed that a detailed update would be provided at the next Transit Committee meeting in May.

“We want to give you that detailed information about trial running, what it means for our customers, what they can expect, and the timelines associated with that.” 

Coun. Marty Carr (Alta Vista) shared Tierney’s concerns, and wondered who was paying for the various additional measures being undertaken to address the safety issues discovered by Alstom and RTG.

“RTG and Alstom are wholly responsible for the design manufacture of the vehicles and the system, so those are costs for them to bear,” said Charter. 

Carr noted that operational costs to the service, in terms of the required extra operators and busses, still fell on the city. 

The next Transit Committee is expected to take place on May 14. 

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The construction of sidewalks along Arundel Avenue, Braemar Street, Jeffery Avenue, and Kilbarry Crescent in the Manor Park neighbourhood has been a contentious topic, with one local opposition group gathering together under the slogan “Don’t pave paradise.” According to a survey undertaken by Coun. King, 52 per cent of respondents were in opposition to the sidewalks, while 40 per cent were in support.

But the voices against the proposed motion were numerous at Monday’s committee meeting. Among those voices was Rob Attrell, a board member of Bike Ottawa, who was also representing community organizations such as Ecology Ottawa, CAFES Ottawa, the Ottawa Disability Coalition, Walkable Ottawa, and the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment — among others.

“Debates like this that divide a neighbourhood threaten to set a dangerous precedent for the entire city,” said Attrell. “When a community group challenges the Official Plan, trying to opt out of minimum safety and accessibility standards, it should be based on more than a desire to maintain the status quo.”

He added that the construction of sidewalks now, during a time when roads are scheduled for other maintenance, is cost-efficient. “If the city skips putting these sidewalks in now, you’re all voting to lock in known safety deficiencies for decades.”

Safety and accessibility were two recurring themes brought up by delegations who came to Monday’s meeting to oppose the proposed motion. Opponents also expressed concerns over this setting a precedent in other neighbourhoods.

“Don’t allow communities to opt-out of the evidence-based plans based on vibes,” said Attrell. “If the ‘no sidewalks’ group succeeds in delaying or canceling these plans, you can be sure that other areas are going to be lining up to be excluded, probably for their own unique reasons.”

Coun. Glen Gower (Stitsville) noted that the policy to install sidewalks in Ottawa is “based on a foundation of some pretty solid policy.”

“In new neighbourhoods in our community in Stitsville, there’s sidewalks installed not in every street, but in most streets, because we know that’s the right thing to do, for accessibility reasons, for equity reasons,” he said.

Coun. King concluded the debate by clarifying that he supports sidewalks and pedestrian safety.

“Supporting sidewalks and questioning their placement here are not contradictory positions,” he said. “This is not about ideology, it’s about getting the location, the sequencing, and the prioritization, and the timing right.”

Ultimately, the motion was defeated in a 7–5 vote against deferral.

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Council’s public works and infrastructure committee on Monday agreed to advance a staff recommendation for a new transportation plan for the central Ottawa neighbourhood.

This includes a 12 to 15 month pilot project to create rush-hour bus-only lanes on a stretch of Bank Street from Highway 417 to the Rideau Canal. The proposal also calls for four segments of permanent bus-only lanes near Lansdowne Park.

The target start date is summer 2027.

Staff originally proposed the pilot would run 15 months, but Coun. Shawn Menard — whose ward includes the Glebe — asked for it to be trimmed to a year.

City council will ultimately decide on the length of the pilot when the proposal is brought forward for final approval.

Setting up bus-only lanes will cost $250,000, and the broader strategy — which will include what city staff call pedestrian and cycling improvements — will total $2.5 million.

Menard called the pilot a “long-time coming,” and praised staff for comprehensive consultations with businesses and residents in the Glebe.

“I think we’re in a much better spot now than we were before, and [I’m] very interested to be around, hopefully, when these results come out, and to see that proven data utilized in a good way for this streetscape.”

Transit advocates who spoke at the committee meeting on Monday largely supported the plan, saying buses running through the Glebe are often slowed by traffic along Bank

But Ajay Ramachandran of advocacy group Better Transit Ottawa called on the city to go further than having bus-only lanes in peak directions in the morning and afternoon. He warned that bus delays in one part of the city create a “cascade” effect elsewhere.

“If there are bus lanes only in the peak direction, the buses in the peak direction will still be canceled or delayed because of the non-peak direction buses,” he said.

Still, Ramachandran said it was “exciting to finally see this proposal getting close to being implemented,” and urged council to fast-track the plan to “give riders the relief they deserve during our bus reliability crisis.”

Darrell Cox, executive director of the Glebe Business Improvement Area, said his members opposed removing on-street parking spots for the bus-only lanes.

City staff said the permanent segments would eliminate 17 on-street parking spots, and the pilot project would restrict 146 spots in peak periods in the morning and afternoon.

Cox warned that most trips to Glebe businesses are made by car and making it more challenging to park could turn away customers. While there are spots available in nearby parking garages, he said the BIA’s research shows that customers overwhelmingly prefer on-street parking.

“Ensuring that the Glebe remains easy to reach is not a matter of convenience. It is matter of economic necessity,” Cox said, adding that some 80 members of the BIA signed an email petition opposing the project.

“At the end of the day, if access becomes too difficult, customers will not adapt. They will leave. If we get this wrong, we won’t just lose parking spaces, we lose businesses.”

Responding to a question from the committee, Cox said there are roughly 290 businesses located between Holmwood Avenue and the Queensway, but suspected more would sign the petition if BIA members went door-to-door.

A motion from Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo to make the pilot conditional on the approval of two-thirds of businesses along the strip was handily defeated. Only Lo and Orléans East-Cumberland Coun. Matt Luloff voted in favour.

Coun. Laine Johnson, who supported the pilot, said she believed the goal is “to try and unlock the potential for this site for as many people as possible.”

“Right now, different users are being shut out or avoiding it for… a whole host of reasons, and right now, the city is making an investment to try and figure out how to maximize the potential for this site,” she said.

Johnson said proposals like bus-only lanes in the Glebe are needed to ensure that city investments in transit bear fruit, likening it to buying a pricey Peloton bike but only using it to hang your clothes on.

“I think as the city we do need to start being a little less apologetic about putting transit first,” she said.

Johnson also commended staff for promising to set up a website to update residents on developments on the pilot, and asked for regular updates during the length of the project.

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That figure comes from plans released by federal departments and agencies for 2026-27 outlining how they’ll shed billions of dollars to meet the government’s cost-cutting targets. Multiple part-time positions can make up one full-time equivalent position.

Rola Salem, spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, said departments were asked to include in their reports details about the savings for each fiscal year until 2028-29. That included a description of how the savings would be achieved, the number of reductions in full-time equivalent positions and any measures that weren’t included in the last budget.

Among the expected job losses are 1,793 positions at Public Services and Procurement Canada, 900 jobs at Statistics Canada and 942 at Health Canada.

While the plans were supposed to offer clarity on how programs will be affected by the spending review, some departments offered only vague commitments to “streamline” services or “modernize” operations. Others said they were still figuring out where to find savings.

Several departments and agencies offered more concrete details of their plans.

They include the Canadian Space Agency, which said it plans to terminate work on the LEAP Lunar Rover Mission.

The Canada Revenue Agency said it plans to wind down business units that are no longer connected to government priorities, like the units that processed the Digital Services Tax and consumer carbon pricing.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it’s reducing “non-core research activities” and consolidating laboratory services to focus on essential testing and avoid the need for costly upgrades.

It says it’s also decommissioning some vehicle washing stations and winding down functions that are no longer required to address health risks linked to the trade in pets.

Environment and Climate Change Canada says it’s reducing the Low Carbon Economy Fund and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says it’s winding down some programs outside of its core mandate, like the Agricultural Climate Solution Living Labs program.

The plan for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces says the military will retire selected fleets that are nearing the end of their service lives, face rising sustainment costs or are no longer align with operational requirements. It says it will also sell off or lease “underutilized, obsolete or surplus” properties.

Library and Archives Canada says it’s gradually reducing Access to Information and Privacy functions and the proactive review of historical records functions over a three-year period. It’s also discontinuing funding for the Documentary Heritage Communities Program.

Public Services and Procurement Canada says it’s winding down the activities of the Canada General Standards Board and reducing funding for Laboratories Canada.

Several departments — including Shared Services Canada, the Department of Justice, Public Services and Procurement Canada and Public Safety Canada — outlined plans to use artificial intelligence to increase efficiency or improve service delivery.

David McLaughlin, former president and CEO of the Institute on Governance, said the plans offer “broad strokes” of the impacts of the spending review. He said while the documents offer “some transparency” about the review, more details are needed.

He said those details will come either from a separate document from the Department of Finance or Treasury Board or from questioning by opposition parties.

“You can’t tell … at this moment, at this stage, what will be the actual impact of that in terms of a service on the ground to certain people, certain demographics or in certain regions,” said McLaughlin. “It’s going to have to come through the detailed committee hearings.”

Treasury Board spokesman Moe Kamal said in an email Saturday that as proposed in Budget 2025, reductions in the federal workforce will be managed through attrition and voluntary departures as much as possible.

“Through this initiative, approximately 68,000 public servants received notifications that they may be eligible to retire early with an immediate pension based on years of service, with no penalty for leaving early, subject to criteria set by the Treasury Board,” Kamal said, adding the government will keep employees updated on its plans as information becomes available.

Appearing before the House committee on government operations this month, Secretary of the Treasury Board Bill Matthews said departments and agencies were told to target programs and activities that were underperforming, overlapped with other programs or were not aligned with government priorities.

Michael Wernick, former clerk of the Privy Council, said the departmental plans “set the table” for parliamentary review.

He said members of Parliament will be trying to “squeeze out more detail” during committee meetings.

“The game to be played this year is the opposition will be trying to suss out details on what’s being cut, or in some cases augmented, looking for nuggets that they can go after and criticize,” Wernick said.

Conservative MP and Treasury Board critic Stephanie Kusie said the documents offer “no clear road map for the departments.”

“They’ve updated the (full-time equivalent) numbers, but it’s not clear as to line by line how they’re going to achieve this within each department,” she said. “Even though there is a decrease in the full-time equivalents, we’re still seeing an increase in spending.”

Kusie said it’s “concerning” that some departmental reports lack details about which programs and services will be affected by cuts. She said she expected more detailed information and a clearer path, given that departments have had months since the release of the budget.

“It makes me wonder, do they know what they’re doing or are they not quite certain as of yet?” she said. “I’m worried about it for transparency.”

“I definitely think after reviewing these plans that it merits more specific questions to departments.”

Federal unions are sounding the alarm over the planned job cuts. Public Service Alliance of Canada national president Sharon DeSousa said the cuts aren’t about efficiency but are an “attack on the public service itself.”

“By eliminating thousands of jobs, the government is weakening the very programs people in Canada rely on,” she said.

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City councillor Tim Tierney says Ottawa is staring down the barrel of a potential transit nightmare as it’s unclear if a planned expansion of light-rail service will come online before public servants return to the office four-days-a-week in July.

He accused OC Transpo of keeping council and residents in the dark on plans to start testing vehicles on a new extension of the city’s main light-rail line to the east end.

The extension project received a certificate of substantial completion earlier this month, but there hasn’t been any information provided since on when testing will start. There’s also no date for a promised technical briefing.

Revenue service can only start after vehicles run on the line without error for 21 days straight and tests are conducted to ensure systems are ready.

Making matters worse is that OC Transpo only has 20 train cars available now and would need 45 for the tests, according to Tierney.

With mechanical issues continuing to plague the existing line, Tierney said he doesn’t understand how OC Transpo will meet its target of getting the extension up and running by the end of the second quarter of 2026.

“They still think that the math supports waiting until they can complete this and have operating paid service by the end of the second quarter,” he told iPolitics in an interview on Thursday.

“I just don’t see the math, and we still don’t have that date for a technical briefing.”

The city’s light-rail project has been mired in controversy since the first segment of the Confederation Line came online in 2019.

READ MORE: It’s been four years since Ottawa’s LRT public inquiry. Where does the train stand now?

Mechanical issues and derailments plagued the start of revenue service, and the province ordered a public inquiry to investigate the project in 2022.

The inquiry’s final report found that the system’s failures were caused not by a single technical issue, but by a combination of unproven technology, complex contracts and governance failures.

It also concluded that senior city officials withheld key information from councillors about the system’s final testing phase, limiting council’s oversight of the project.

The report came as the city was already in the process of extending the line to the east, west and south.

The southern extension expanded the oldest section of the O-Train — dubbed the Trillium Line — and connected Bayview in Little Italy to Riverside South. It also included a spur to bring train service to the Ottawa airport.

It started service in early 2025, years later than originally planned.

The 12.5- kilometre eastern extension will add five new stations and bring rail service from Blair all the way to Trim station in Orleans.

It has also faced delays, but transit officials expressed confidence it would start revenue service in the first half of 2026.

Tierney, who represents the Beacon Hill-Cyrville ward in the city’s east, warned of a nightmare scenario for Ottawa commuters if OC Transpo doesn’t hit that target.

That’s because public servants will return to the office four-days-a-week starting in July, adding tens of thousands of commuters to the city’s roads and transit lines. Students will then return to classes in September, putting further strain on the transportation network.

The existing O-Train line is also struggling with mechanical issues, forcing OC Transpo to run single-vehicle cars.

If new rail service doesn’t come online soon, Tierney said it’s unclear how the transit provider will deal with increased demand from public servants and students, with the city boasting fewer than 500 buses. (The city has reduced the size of its bus fleet as it has replaced its rapid-bus network with light-rail service.)

“The whole point of seeing the line go online for the east end was to actually add more buses back to our complement. If that doesn’t happen, then we have this new challenge of buses that aren’t coming in quick enough,” he said, calling it a “perfect storm” of challenges.

That’s why Tierney said he needs to hear answers from OC Transpo on how it will handle the increased traffic.

“I want to know what that plan is if the line goes down. Are there going to be extra buses to be able to subsidize those stations for the missing train? There are a lot of very important questions, and we need that technical briefing,” he said.

“I’m going to continue to press the mayor’s office to make sure that OC Transpo actually comes out and sets the date for the meeting.”

Richard Holder, the city’s director of the rail construction program, told the transit committee last week that trial running would only commence once OC Transpo has the appropriate trains to complete the tests.

“We’re very eager to inform councillors when that technical briefing will take place. But what we need to have in place [is] an understanding of when the vehicles will be available to perform the trial, running. So, that really is the next step.”

When pressed by Tierney about the testing process, Holder said more answers would be provided at the yet-to-be scheduled technical briefing.

Troy Charter, the city’s interim general manager of Transit Services, blamed mechanical issues that have taken offline train cars with axels that have more than 100,000 kilometres of mileage for preventing staff from nailing down the date of briefings on the east extension and return to full service on the existing line.

“We really need to focus on finalizing the containment plan, which would allow for the return of the fleet [and] the lifting of the 100,000 kilometre restriction. And then once that’s done, then we can solidify those two dates,” he said at the committee meeting.

“We’re making good progress, and I think we are close to being able to schedule that date. I know that’s frustrating because this has been lasting for a long time, but we are getting very, very close to being able to schedule those two technical briefings.”

Another logistic challenge facing the transit provider is dealing with passengers during the testing phase. Tierney said the line needs to run from Tunney’s Pasture to Trim, but passengers can’t be on board pass the current terminus of Blair station.

“What happens to people at Blair when they say, ‘I’m staying on this train’ and they decide not to get off? You have to stop the train because you can’t have passenger service until it’s certified for 21 days of running. Does that affect that 21-day performance? Do you start the clock again? Obviously, you would,” he explained.

“These are very important questions, and we really need to know the answers, and we’re not getting them.”

Holder said that trains running between Blair and Trim stations wouldn’t carry passengers but service would continue on the rest of the line.

When asked by Tierney at committee, Holder said OC Transpo would direct customers off the trains at Blair.

Tierney vowed to continue to raise his concerns over the east extension with local media and at council and transit committee, calling it the “biggest challenge” he’s seen facing OC Transpo in his 16 years in office.

“I’ve been pretty [much] like a dog with a bone on this one for the last while,” he said.

“[The next] transit committee meeting takes place in three weeks. I’ll be there raising the same questions. I’m hoping before we get to that meeting, they’re going to announce when this briefing is going to take place, because the public’s fed up. They need to know”

A western extension of the O-Train that will run from Tunney’s Pasture to Moodie near Bell’s Corner and include a spur to Algonquin College’s main campus is expected to enter service in 2027.

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Welcome back to Adjournment Proceedings, our weekly long read series. We publish a new edition every Friday. In this week’s edition, we look at what lessons — if any — have been applied from Ottawa’s light rail public inquiry. Missed a week? Take a look through our archives here.

When Laura Shantz first moved to Ottawa in 2001, she was in awe of the city’s public transit system.

“We had what was considered one of the best transit systems in all of North America,” said Shantz, a board member of the Ottawa Transit Riders, a transit advocacy group.

Shantz, who grew up in a town without a public transit system, said OC Transpo buses were efficient. The buses came frequently, and the stops were spread out across the city that made it just walkable enough.

By the time the city launched the light rail system, Shantz said she was “pleasantly surprised.” The train cars were a little crowded, and no handle bars were installed yet, but she got around just fine.

The novelty of Ottawa’s first light rail system was fleeting. It was soon plagued by incidents of derailment, shutdowns, and delays.

Now, when asked how she would describe the LRT experience, she said it’s been “fraught.”

“When things go well, it can be a really great experience. It can be quick, easy, no worries about being stuck in traffic, but when things go wrong, they often go really wrong,” Shantz said.

2022 Public Inquiry Flashback

In 2022, the province launched a public inquiry into Ottawa’s troubled light rail system after years of derailments, shutdowns and safety concerns.

Led by Justice William Hourigan, the inquiry’s commissioner, the final report issued 103 recommendations, concluding that the system’s failures were caused not by a single technical issue, but by a combination of unproven technology, complex contracts and governance failures.

Hourigan also found senior city officials withheld key information from councillors about the system’s final testing phase, limiting council’s oversight of the project.

Experts say the lessons from Ottawa’s experience extend beyond a single transit system.

Transit funding in Canada

Challenges faced within Ottawa’s light rail system shouldn’t be looked at as a unique case, said Matthias Sweet, associate professor at the School of Urban & Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Sweet said Ontario dramatically expanded its role in transit infrastructure in the mid-2000s through policy reforms, including Metrolinx creation. It brought new levels of funding to major projects, but he said institutions are still adapting to that larger role.

“If you look historically, even just within the British North America Act, the federal government actually doesn’t have an explicit role in things like light rail, transit of any kind, or in urban areas,” he said.

They traditionally controlled ports and border crossings, which has been interpreted as airports and bigger infrastructure investment.

“It’s challenging from a system perspective, because as you can imagine, it takes time to build the capacity for planning,” Sweet said.

When it comes to mega-infrastructures in Canada, these projects are often financed through a public-private partnership model, or P3. It’s a model where governments contract a private consortium to design, build, finance and sometimes maintain major infrastructure projects.

Instead of having the government manage each step separately, the private partner takes on project risks, including construction costs and delays. Contractors are usually paid once the infrastructure is delivered and meets performance standards.

While P3, ideally, can help keep projects on time and on budget by shifting risk to the private sector, the public inquiry report found that the complex structure and risk allocation under the model made it harder for the city to detect and address technical problems before the system launched.

“Public-private partnerships are complex, and the thing is that municipalities don’t have a lot of experience in negotiating them,” said David Amborski, a professional urban planner and professor at TMU’s School of Urban and Regional Planning.

Amborski pointed to Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown Light-Rail Transit line, another major transit project built under a P3 model, which has faced years of delays and disputes between Metrolinx and the private consortium responsible for the construction. The project has also seen costs rise significantly beyond initial estimates.

Josipa Petrunic, president and CEO of Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium, said it’s an inherently Canadian creation, but the problem really lies in the “adversarial approach” to contracting.

“This is a call of culture we have in Canada,” Petrunic said.

She explains that the problems often stem less from technology or financing models, but more from how governments and contractors manage relationships and decision-making.

“There is a lot of ego and pride that gets embedded in some of these procurements with people who are smart, but they are ultimately public bureaucrats demanding of the private sector.”

She stressed that once public figures start replacing approaches with collaboration and understanding, and meeting halfway with the private sector to see what’s feasible rather than demanding, P3s start to work.

However, both Petrunic and Amborski noted that there are still major transit projects that were successful under the P3 model. They pointed to Waterloo’s Ion light rail.

Waterloo’s Ion light rail began operation in 2019 and spanned 19 km, with a total of 19 stations.

“They managed their deadlines well and they managed their communications with the public really well,” Petrunic said.

Riders and Trust 

Four years after the public inquiry, some riders say the system is slowly improving, but OC Transpo remains in a trust-building mode.

Petrunic said rebuilding trust after years of disruptions depends heavily on communication with riders about service reliability and system changes.

On Thursday, the transit committee reported that O-train ridership increased by 2.4 per cent from the previous year, currently sitting at 70.6 million.

The committee also reported that the O-train reliability, which measures service delivery, regularity and punctuality, is at 95.7 per cent.

In February, the city council voted to support a provincial legislation that would grant transit special constables new powers when it comes to people using drugs on trains and buses and inside stations to enhance riders’ safety and security.

Just last week, transit officials announced that O-train’s east extensions to Orléans reached a construction milestone, and are currently in their testing period.

The Test 

The next phase of Ottawa’s rail network may ultimately determine whether those lessons were learned.

As the city prepares to expand the O-Train through its Stage 2 project, which involves three extensions to the existing rail network, including links to the east and west, and the Trillium Line expansion to the south, officials say they have implemented new governance measures and testing requirements have been introduced following the inquiry.

A report to the transit committee from September also showed the scale of the expansion. As of early 2026, the city has spent roughly $4.5 billion on the Stage 2 project. The project’s contingency fund now totals $366.8 million, with nearly $275 million already committed.

Officials also warned that further delays could place additional pressure on the budget.

For Shantz, the question now isn’t just about why the system failed, it’s about how the city moves forward.

“Even if we did buy a lemon, this is our lemon, we have to live with it,” Shantz said.

“We can’t just rip it up and start from scratch. We have to figure out a way to make it work.”

The post It’s been four years since Ottawa’s LRT public inquiry. Where does the train stand now? appeared first on CompassNews.

But it won’t happen without council having final say after a motion was passed at Wednesday’s meeting.

The city first proposed pedestrianizing the narrow street that runs along the main market building back in 2021. The province granted the city $11.8 million in 2024 for the project.

Fast forward two years and city staff is now proposing to defer work on pedestrianizing William Street and reallocating the funding elsewhere.

At Wednesday’s council meeting, several councillors raised concerns about the plan and grilled city staff on what prompted the change in direction.

Coun. Jeff Leiper (Kitchissippi), who is running for mayor in the fall municipal election, questioned why the city wanted to defer the project.

Debbie Stewart, the city’s general manager of strategic initiatives, responded that it was because there are now more businesses in the area that are “very concerned” about the project than there were back in 2021. She blamed this on “a very uncertain economic environment.”

“There is a particular context today where those compounding impacts were really causing a much higher degree of concern,” she said.

Leiper was not satisfied, and asked for further clarification on the consultation process, as well as how the money would be reallocated.

He then joined to second a motion from Coun. Stéphanie Plante (Rideau-Vanier) that the proposal to reallocate the provincial funding towards the pedestrianization of William Street be subject to approval by council.

The motion passed, meaning city staff will have to present a report on the proposal to the finance and corporate services committee before advancing further.

Plante’s ward includes the Byward Market.

Responding to Leiper’s concerns, Stewart said consultations were led by the business improvement areas and business and property owners completed “their own parking survey and analysis with regards to the needs of parking.”

She said the money could be redirected to enhancing safety in the Market but it wouldn’t be spent on private security guards.

“There is recognition that for Ottawa, there are security challenges related to public drug use and an unhoused population, and … part of supporting the businesses is to support safety and security,” said Stewart.

“But it really is business focused in terms of … the measures that would support safety that the province does feel aligns with the priorities of that funding.”

Coun. Laine Johnson (College) expressed similar concerns surrounding the process that led to the proposal.

“Is this a typical process?” asked Johnson. “Are there other examples where we would see a change order of this magnitude on a grant received being done without any committee or councillor opportunities for motions?”

“I’m not aware of any, so I think this is quite a unique situation,” said Stewart.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe clarified to council that the proposal was for a deferral, rather than cancelling the plan altogether.

“The idea is that the pedestrianization of William Street is still planned to go ahead, but the work would be done in line with the work that is done on the ByWard Market building… So it’s not a change in vision, not a change in plan, just a change in timetable.”

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