Ottawa's light rail project veers off-track

Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien says he will vote againstthe city's revised light rail plan now that the federal and provincial governments have confirmed $400 million in funding will not be in place by Friday's contract deadline.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, O'Brien said the city must sign a binding closure agreement by Dec. 15 in order for the plan to go forward.

O'Brien voted in favour of the plan last week, but said signing the contractnow would be a big risk.

"For this reason, I plan to present this issue to council on Thursday and to ask council if we should move forward with the amended program without fully understanding our funding commitments," he said. "I personally do not believe that would be a prudent course of action and plan to vote accordingly."

Thursday's city council votewill decidethe fate of the proposed rail line, and Coun. Alex Cullen said Tuesday that there arethree different options.

"We have to make a decision to 'go' or 'no go' on this whether it's the modified proposal, the original proposal or we walk away."

The federal and provincial governments committed $200-million each to the original north-south light-railproposal approved by the previous city council in July, but council voted last week to go forward with a revised light rail line that no longer passes through downtown Ottawa.

Letters put strings on cash

The City of Ottawa received three letters Tuesday from upper levels of government that all butderailed the revised plan.

The first, from a senior bureaucrat at Transport Canada, advised O'Brien that the new version of the plan would require "a thorough review and due diligence," and that the federal government's $200-million contribution would not be available until that review is complete.

The second letter was from Treasury Board President John Baird, who confirmed that the review would be "difficult to do" in time for the project's Dec. 15 contract deadline.

The third letter was from David Caplan, Ontario minister of public infrastructure renewal, who said the province is concerned about the changes to the planand "strongly urges" city councillors to "revisit" their decision. Caplan also said he does not want any of the Ontario government's $200 million to go towards a downtown tunnel.

Council likely to vote against both plans: councillors

Now that the mayor plans to vote against the revised light rail proposal, Coun. Alex Cullen said, it is unlikely council will choose to go forward with that plan.

Coun. Diane Deans said she doesn't think council will vote in favour of theoriginal plan either.

If council chooses to scrap both plans, there is a possibility that Siemens-PCL/Dufferin the group of companies contracted to design, build and maintain the light rail line could pursue legal action against the city.

The group would not comment Tuesday.

However, Coun. Gord Hunter said, it is unlikely the group will sue, as their contract hinges on federal and provincial contribution agreements.

"Those haven't been forthcoming," Hunter said, "so in my view the city is fully able to walk away from that agreement."