Ottawa weighs uploading LRT to province: $85M a year, but who controls the trains?

Background

Ottawa city council authorized negotiations with Ontario last October on "uploading" the light rail system — transferring ownership and responsibility for the O-Train to the province. In April, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria signed a memorandum of understanding confirming talks were moving ahead. City projections put the long-term benefit at about $4 billion in capital, maintenance and operating costs shifted off Ottawa taxpayers, or roughly $85 million a year that could be reinvested in bus service and frequency.

The control question

Beyond the money, transit committee chair Coun. Glen Gower has flagged the catch: "what does 'local control' mean if somebody else owns the railway?" An alternative model would have the province simply reimburse Ottawa for its share of LRT costs, leaving the city in the driver's seat while still getting the financial relief. When council authorized negotiations it attached seven principles, including that any deal be consistent with precedent deals reached with other Ontario municipalities and that OC Transpo retain local control over service delivery and hiring.

Why Ottawa feels the bill is lopsided

Ottawa taxpayers are currently covering about 55 percent of the cost of building LRT Stages 1 and 2, while taxpayers in Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton and Brampton have paid only about 5 percent of the cost of their own transit projects, with the province and federal government splitting the rest. For a city Ottawa's size, that gap has been a sore point at council for years — and is the main force driving the upload push.