SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
December 1, 2022 09:00AM
  • Dec/1/22 10:10:00 a.m.

A loud thud was heard yesterday across Ontario at 11 a.m. It was the dropping and the introduction of the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Commission report. It was a 650-plus-page document detailing the problems we’ve had with our LRT system. It’s something I have fought for in this place—thanks to residents and community members back home, who I want to thank for their work.

Sometimes, the truth hurts, and it certainly hurts this morning for advocates of public-private partnerships in infrastructure, because Justice William Hourigan, who led this report, said the following: “The P3 model caused or contributed to several of the ongoing difficulties on the project ... the city traditionally had a hands-on leading role in projects, given the lesser role it played under this mode, the city was left in a position where it had limited insight or control over the project.”

P3s are an accident waiting to happen. They will not offer the transparency the public deserves. That is the lesson, I believe, from Ottawa’s LRT failure.

But right now, as I speak, the same P3 consultants and contractors who made a mess out of Ottawa’s LRT are building the Eglinton Crosstown.

I call on this government to read Justice Hourigan’s report, to learn the lessons, to not waste the public money, and to make sure the mess that happened in Ottawa never happens again.

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  • Dec/1/22 10:40:00 a.m.

Yesterday’s Ottawa LRT inquiry report revealed a cascade of problems due to the decision to build the LRT as a public-private partnership. The report said, “In many ways, the P3 model caused or contributed to several of the ongoing difficulties on the project.” These difficulties included a lack of transparency, misleading information from the P3 contractor, and the city’s inability to hold the P3 partner accountable for deficiencies.

Will the government learn the lessons of the Ottawa LRT fiasco and stop signing risky P3 contracts?

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  • Dec/1/22 10:40:00 a.m.

The same P3 contractors and private consultants responsible for the Ottawa LRT are also responsible for the Eglinton Crosstown P3. The Auditor General warned of deficient designs and missed deadlines. There are already signs that the problems experienced with the Ottawa LRT could happen with the Eglinton Crosstown P3. Metrolinx keeps announcing more delays and keeps paying more money to the P3 contractor. They recently announced yet another one-year delay, which both the minister and Metrolinx have refused to explain.

Clearly, something has once again gone wrong with the Eglinton Crosstown P3.

What is the ministry and Metrolinx hiding?

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  • Dec/1/22 11:00:00 a.m.

Supplementary.

I heard what the member for Ottawa South said. I will remind all members that you can’t impute motive in the House. I’m going to ask the member to withdraw and then conclude his question.

Interjections.

The next question.

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  • Dec/1/22 2:20:00 p.m.
  • Re: Bill 26 

Thank you to the member from Ottawa West–Nepean for the presentation. I know you spent some time on schedule 3, where the name of the university is changed to Toronto Metropolitan University. When we talk about Indian residential schools across the country, where it instituted systemic racism—how it impacted First Nations across Canada—I know we talk about the decades of systemic racism, the decades of systemic oppression.

I know that a name change is a very, very small step. When we talk about the 94 calls to action, do you think this government has gone far enough to be able to implement those 94 calls to action?

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