Monday March 7, 2022
What Ottawa is Talking About – 7 March 2022
▪️Mayor Jim Watson says yes, the City did consult with the builders before launching the O Train. The builders, Rideau Transit Group, alleged last week that the City started service prematurely without consulting them. This City said/builder said stuff is over the Transit Group’s effort to stop a court from declaring that the Transit Group is in default over maintenance, which would cancel the contract with the City. [CTV]
▪️The Trillium line may open 17 months late, says City memo. Substantial completion – the memo's words – will be in 2023. Ottawa Bulldog correctly asks: Why was this memo sent out on a Saturday morning? [Ottawa Bulldog] [The Memo]
▪️The Provincial Inquiry into the O Train will be livestreamed from it’s Carleton University meeting space. The inquiry will be looking into the recent derailments, the procurement process, and the City's oversight of the project. The inquiry has a August 31 deadline to report back to the Province. The livestream will be in June, we'll update with a specific date when we know. [CBC]
▪️The guy who scammed $128,000 from the City in 2018 has been sent to prison for 12.5 years. Elvin Lewis Jr. faked the email of Ottawa's City Manager and sent an invoice to the City treasurer, who paid it. For fans of the Netflix show Ozark, a witness testified that the scam was part of a larger scheme of money laundering that worked just like the TV show. [Ottawa Citizen]
▪️The Trucker Siege data leak shows 84 addresses in Barrhaven donated to the protestors. The protestors used GiveSendGo to receive donations but the poor coding of that site allowed all the names of donors to be released. [Barrhaven Independent]
▪️The latest Apartment 613 Urban Walk: Bank Street North. [Apartment 613]
