What the LRT Inquiry means for Ottawa

Good morning!

Hopefully, there’s not another nationwide internet outage this morning, and this one has landed nicely in your inbox.

I went on a bike ride this weekend that went pretty badly when I had an issue with my rear tire. Fortunately, I was near(-ish) to a bicycle repair stand set up by the city. It was a lifesaver. Or at least enough of a saver that I didn’t need to walk a bike with a seizing rear wheel a couple kilometres home. My only complaint with the repair stands is there aren’t enough of them. There are only 39 throughout town. Here’s a handy map, should you ever find yourself in my shoes.

Anyway, enough of that, let’s get to the newsletter.

— Robert Hiltz, managing editor

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Weather Report

Monday: 28 🌡️ 18 | 🌦

Tuesday: 23 🌡️ 16 | 🌧

Wednesday: 21 🌡️ 14 | 🌧

LRT Inquiry: What we’ve learned

Hi there Lookout readers. What follows is something a little different than usual. On some occasions big issues come along that warrant something a little more than just telling you what happens, occasionally — very occasionally — we feel that there’s something going on in the city that requires a bit of commentary. We think that the LRT Inquiry, and what we’ve learned from it, is one of those times.

It’s about honesty: One of the major threads throughout the inquiry into Stage 1 of the LRT has been about who knew what, and when. What we have found out through this process is the public, and most of council, were kept in the dark about the depth of the LRT’s problems. They were given no information about key decisions like lowering testing standards or accepting a system they knew was flawed and running it at full service anyway.

Key decision-makers, all the way up to Mayor Jim Watson, knew all of this and kept it from the public.

I don’t know if you could say definitively these people were lying to us, but what the inquiry has made clear is no one in charge of the LRT has ever been honest with us.

The biggest revelation, perhaps, was the outing of a secret WhatsApp chat between key officials, Mayor Jim Watson, and Coun. Allan Hubley. They shared information in this group, made decisions, and heckled their critics. What makes it such a revelation, is none of the participants thought to mention it in their pre-inquiry interviews by the commission’s lawyers. Why not? Well, according to the mayor it was because no one asked him if they had a private WhatsApp chat.

The chat was also revealing in other ways. For example, the mayor said he was more into the big picture, not really a details guy. But, as CBC shows in their reporting, the mayor was very much into small details, once furiously messaging his way through a single trip with a series of small issues that needed attention.

The weeks of testimony gave us a view into how the LRT was built, why contracts were structured how they were, and how standards were dropped repeatedly to get the trains on track by the announced deadline. Most puzzling was maybe the decision to push against a soft launch — where fewer trains would have run with the public to work out the kinks — in order to save face. The early months of the system were a disaster, one the city was warned about.

The inquiry as a whole was a great service to the people of Ottawa. It is to the shame of the mayor and the 13 other councillors who voted against a judicial inquiry. Their votes served the interests of only themselves.

Now we have a window into what happened. It is not pretty, but at least it is real, honest information. Honesty shouldn’t be hard to come by, but in Jim Watson’s Ottawa, it took a public inquiry to get it.

What’s next: At the end of the month, the commission will hear from a panel of experts on how public-private partnerships are structured. The final report from the inquiry is due in August, but an extension could be granted and it is expected in the fall, according to the Ottawa Citizen.

• Want to catch up? Check out the Lookout breakdown of each day’s testimony at the LRT inquiry here.

Anxious delays at Ontario hospital

Waiting by the phone: An Orléans woman is one of thousands of people across the province waiting for cancer surgery because of massive hospital wait times.

Speaking to CBC, Patricia Riley said when her cancer was caught early, she felt lucky. But she was supposed to get surgery within two to four weeks. That has now been extended to two to 12 weeks, so she waits by the phone hoping for a call she has a spot.

• "I literally feel like a ticking time bomb. … Every day you wonder, is it today? Is it tomorrow? Is it next week? When does your luck run out?" Riley told CBC.

Wider problem: It’s one story among thousands across the province. Emergency rooms are overwhelmed, with wait times hours beyond what they should be, according to the Ottawa Citizen. Rural hospitals are having to close down departments as COVID strikes staff depleted and worn down by a two-year pandemic that hit after more than a decade of strain on the hospital system.

• “It is all rooted in running a hospital system at 100 percent (capacity) or higher for 15 years, which greatly reduced its capacity to deal with the unexpected. … For 15 years, successive previous governments chose efficiency over all objectives. We just don’t have the capacity that other jurisdictions do,” Ontario Hospital Association Secretary Anthony Dale told the Citizen.

Jobs around town

1. Research scientist at the University of Ottawa

2. Director of sales and events at the Andaz Ottawa Hotel in the ByWard Market

3. Experimental physicist at Quantum Bridge Technologies Inc.

4. Policy and regulatory advisor at the Canadian Museum of History

5. Wig mistress/wig master at the NAC

Rogers outage has big effect across Ottawa

Lasting outage: While most uses of Rogers networks were back online by the end of Friday, many were still without services Saturday morning in Ottawa.

One Kanata resident told CTV their cell service had returned, but their internet service was out. The outage affected more than just Rogers cell and internet service, much of the Interac payment system went down, and some areas reported 911 and other phone services were down, The Canadian Press reported.

• Rogers president and CEO Tony Staffieri said in a statement the cause of the outage was due to “a maintenance update in our core network.”

Restaurant disruptions: Across the city, restaurants had difficulties accepting payments from Interac and credit cards. It also wreaked havoc on delivery platforms. Because the outage came on a Friday, many felt the sting on one of the busiest days of the week, with one business owner telling CBC they lost three-quarters of their usual business.

‘Credit’ scam: Text messages offering you can claim credits from Rogers because of the outage are a scam, the company said on Twitter. Any credits offered to your account will automatically be applied, and will not require you to click a link you get via text or email, the company said.

Stories you might've missed

OPH says wear a mask: Ottawa Public Health is warning that in this current wave of COVID, people should wear a mask at outdoor events like Bluesfest. Public Health said people should wear masks indoors, and at crowded outdoor gatherings like the festival. [CTV]

Luke Combs sells out Bluesfest: About 30,000 people came out to see Luke Combs on a sold-out Saturday of the return of the city’s biggest music festival. It’s the biggest Bluesfest crowd since the Foo Fighters in 2018. Alanis Morissette returned home last night for another night under the stars on LeBreton flats. The festival continues until Sunday. [Ottawa Citizen]

Lich denied bail: Convoy leader Tamara Lich had her bail revoked for violating the conditions of her release. She was pictured alongside another convoy leader, specifically included in people she was not allowed to have contact with. Lich has been in jail since June 27. [CBC]

Six die in weekend crashes: Multiple crashes in and around Ottawa left six people dead this weeked. Most of them involved single-vehicle crashes, but one 90-year-old cyclist was killed outside Kingston when they were hit by a car. [CTV]

Join our crowdfunding campaign to create Ottawa's best food and restaurant publication

We’re in the midst of a huge crowdfunding effort to raise enough money to fund a brand new food and restaurant publication in Ottawa.

• To make this happen, we need 150 new members by July 31 to fund the publication’s launch.

Why become a member: Not only will you help build what we believe will be the best food and restaurant publication in Ottawa, but you’ll also get some awesome perks like:

• Access to our entire archive of old reviews;

• A special members-only Insider newsletter covering dishes to try, online maps of all the restaurants we’ve reviewed;

• Discounted tickets to future events;

• And lots more.

Become a member today to help make this new standalone publication a reality and fund independent journalism.

Community highlights

• A Belleville woman, with the help of a sponsorship from a local tool company, was able to bring a whole crew of women roofers to reshingle her roof. [CBC]

• A 13-year-old from a Hunt Club neighbourhood is being hailed for bravery after quickly getting their younger sibling to safety after a fire broke out at their house. [CTV]

• Renfrew’s Bluegrass Festival returned over the weekend so fans could scratch that finger-pickin’ itch. [CTV]

• The Sens’ latest pickup Alex DeBrincat is very excited to be coming to town, after a big trade with Chicago at the draft. [The Canadian Press]

• Across the city, people were able to celebrate their first Eid al-Adha in person since the start of the pandemic. [CBC]

Today's top photo

Today’s top photo comes from Alan Bacon, who sends us this shot of a young raccoon finding its way around Alan’s backyard.

Have you got a photo you’d like to share with Lookout readers? Send it our way!

Friday's pop-quiz answer

Congrats to Suzanne Charlebois, Chantal Geoffrion, Alyson and Aarin Shapiro, who all correctly guessed that the Rideau Canal was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007.

Latest COVID stats

Note: Ottawa Public Health is now only updating COVID stats twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. Because of the Lookout’s publishing schedule, this means the numbers here may be out of date. For the most recent stats, see the OPH COVID Dashboard.

• Active Cases: 768

• Total deaths: 826

• Ottawans In Hospital: 17

• Ottawans In ICU: 1

• Acute Beds Occupied: 92%

• ICU Beds Occupied: 58%

• ICU Ventilator Beds Occupied: 10%

Previous Lookout editions

• Why Ottawa's housing market is cooling - read more

• How the new COVID wave hitting Ottawa and the province could impact you - read more

• Four more interesting sandwich shops in Ottawa to check out - read more