City won't say how much it spends on the LRT during disruptions

The City of Ottawa is refusing to tell taxpayers exactly how much they're paying each month to the maintainers of the Confederation Line,citing contractconfidentiality.

Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM) is in charge of ensuring the light rail system runs smoothly through a 30-year contract worth $1 billion. That contract includes maintaining the tracks, stationsandfleet of Alstom Citadis Spirit cars a job it subcontracts to the trainmaker.

Each month, the city pays RTM between $4 and 5 million.

But when the arm of Rideau Transit Groupa consortium of ACS Infrastructure Canada, SNC-Lavalin, and EllisDon fails toprovide an agreed-upon level of service, the city can refuse to pay.

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These payments became a topic of discussion during the 21-day full-system outage this summer, which forced OC Transpo to bolster its bus service by cancelling outlying routes and shelling out for driver overtime at a time when the agencycontinues to struggle with a staff shortage, multi-million dollar deficit and customer dissatisfaction.

Rene Amilcar, the city's general manager of transit services, gavedirect assurances during a media briefing on July 24.

"I want to assure the customers that we don't pay RTG when RTG doesn't deliver the service," she said.

The reality, however, is not that simple.

Settlement complicates matters

Since the system launched in2019, LRT service has been rife with disruptions and closures. It hasexperienced problems related toweather, infrastructure, trains and maintenance including a bearing problem that will still take up to three years to fix.

Then OC Transpo boss John Manconitold reporters two months post-launch the city would not be paying a dollar to RTMuntil issues were fixed, a statement that soon proved false.

The payment system was designed to "incentivize" the consortium to provide a high level of service and act asthe primary method for enforcing maintenance obligations, according to the final report from last year's public inquiry.

But holding back payments for months did little to improve service, with an RTG official telling the inquiry it left the consortium with "no stick" to force improvements from Alstom.

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The city went on to file two notices of default alleging RTG was not living up to its obligations: first from the launch and later from the August 2021 derailment.

The city eventually agreed torepay millions of dollars in withheld payments, although full financial details of the settlement remain shrouded in secrecy.

What's also unclear is whether the city changed the metrics it uses to assess the Confederation Line's performance.

LRT's financial future

On Aug. 8, CBC asked for a breakdown of how much the city has shelled out for serviceeach monththis year, including for April when freezing rain halted trains across the line for two days.

On Aug. 21, city solicitor David White responded.

Not only willany payments made before the RTG settlement remain confidential, Whitesaid in an email,but so will specifics about any moneydoled out since then.

Releasing monthly details, he wrote,"may result in the disclosure of information that is protected by the confidentiality provisions of the Project Agreement generally."

White went on to writethat a yearly aggregate would eventually make its way to council and committee.

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While end-to-end service has been re-established, OC Transpo is still relying on single-car trains, and couldbe for a long time. Amilcar told CBCthe city will not pay its full maintenance fee for that period, but it's unclear exactly what the savings will be.

As for the 30-year contract, the settlement effectively locked in the city's future with RTM. Buta fresh notice of default could change that.

Coun. Shawn Menardbrought up the option on Aug. 9, when Amilcar updated councillors on the most recent shutdown.

"Obviouslywe've had significant disruption issues again, so is there going to be a notice of default to the operator and the manufacturer of the system?" he asked.

Amilcar responded: "For now, we are working together. We are working very well together. And we will dispute later."