http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/With+rail+plan+zero+means+zero/2345774/story.html
With rail plan, zero means zero
By Ken Gray, The Ottawa CitizenDecember 16, 2009 11:06 AMComments (3)
The City of Ottawa is treading a dangerous path with your tax money ... again.
Gloucester-Southgate Councillor Diane Deans says the city is spending at least $13 million on preparations for the new light-rail plan and tunnel. That would be fine ... except the province has said it is unprepared to fund the $2.1-billion-and-rising project. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Watson say the current plan is just too expensive.
The province has always been the one stable supporter of light rail. When the federal government wavered in its support on the first rail plan, McGuinty stood firm. When council voted down the first project, McGuinty stood firm. Now McGuinty says the new project is too expensive. Without provincial participation, the federal government is unlikely to fund the deal. The new rail plan is, at best, in limbo.
"I think costs have escalated rather dramatically in terms of estimates," the premier said on Oct. 28. "I think what we need to do now is to sit down in a very sober-minded way, talk this through and decide what it is we can all afford."
McGuinty added: "The issue is how much can we do and how quickly can we do it and how much is it all going to cost. Those are real issues."
Still the city continues to spend and plan as though the project is going ahead. It's not. The city is in denial, and squandering your tax money in the process.
Deans says the upcoming budget contains $7 million for environmental assessments. Those assessments, Deans says, include planning for the route along the Ottawa River Parkway, land owned by the National Capital Commission. In public, the NCC has made a point of saying that it has not approved the parkway route. In private, the city has been told that the parkway route is not going to happen. Still, the municipality acts as though the plan is going forward.
As well, Deans says the budget contains money set aside for staffing a $6-million light-rail office. Just one problem. The city wants a provincial agency, Infrastructure Ontario, to build the project. So why such a huge bureaucracy at Ottawa City Hall?
Deans raised these concerns at a recent audit committee meeting in the form of a motion, which was defeated 9-1. She says council feels that if it stops this charade of planning for the current project, all momentum for rail will stop. That's a gamble with very long odds, particularly when the premier has said this project is too expensive. This plan is finished. Period.
Still, the city's march toward this mythical nirvana continues. A recent staff report recommends to transit committee and council that an urban design and transportation study be undertaken for the period after the rail tunnel has been built. Of course, the tunnel won't be built soon, if ever.
Deans' fears go a step further. Given the enthusiasm for the flawed project at city hall, she is worried that council will approve land acquisition for the project without funding in place from the senior levels of government. The staff report recommends that land purchases occur after senior-level government funding is settled. Deans isn't so sure. Remember this is a council that reneged on a contract for the first rail project and had to pay $37 million in damages. When all the bills were covered from that cancellation, the cost was just less than $100 million. Remember $10 million translates to about one per cent on your property-tax bill.
Now Deans has found at least $13 million (another councillor thinks it is closer to $20 million) being spent for a tunnel plan that runs eight- to 10-storeys deep. A storey or two lower and city officials will be able to build a transfer point between a Chinese subway system and OC Transpo.
Maybe this dream plan is just a mayoral platform for transit committee chairman Alex Cullen and Mayor Larry O'Brien (this new plan is their baby) to run next fall.
"The premier turned down our plan and he is standing in the way of progress. Vote for me and I will fight for this great tunnel plan against a wrong-headed premier," they will say. As though the premier wouldn't like to cut a ribbon on a transit project in his hometown.
Maybe Ottawans, through these wasteful unrealistic rail expenses, are paying for a farcical plank in Cullen's or O'Brien's election campaign. Shades of zero means zero.
Ken Gray is a Citizen editorial board member who produces a monthly podcast, Inner City, at ottawacitizen.com/innercity and a blog, The Bulldog, at ottawacitizen.com/bulldog .
His column runs on Wednesdays.
E-mail:
kgray@thecitizen.canwest.com.
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