Blogs Sun & The City

Here was Mayor Jim Watson’s informal reply to Ottawa-Vanier Liberal MP Mauril Belanger and company’s letter to His Worship regarding a light rail station at Confederation Square.

And here is Watson’s formal response to Belanger…

Watson Letter to Belanger May 14 2012

A bit more from my interview today with OC Transpo GM John Manconi, edited slightly for the sake of brevity…

Asked if the mayor’s office had any input to his 12 priorities:

“It’s my strategy, my focus on it. (Deputy city manager) Steve Kanellakos, myself and the organization.”

On engaging employees:

“It’s about being involved and understanding the what before you get into the how and having that sense of urgency of employees wanting to be part of that, which many of them are. Many employees are telling me they don’t want to see a negative story on OC Transpo because it’s a reflection on them. They want to see and hear the postive experiences they do. 103 million passenger (trips) a year. We must be doing a lot of things right. I know there was a lot of hoopla about the 2,000 complaints in one month (in January). Well, I think the number was 0.02%. Let’s talk about all those other millions of experiences we had that was positive.”

On the being scrutinized as head of Transpo:

“It’s an expensive service that touches millions of people. It needs to be under scrutiny and we need to be accountable. As I’ve said from day one, we’ll be accountable for when things go well, we’ll also be accountable when we make a mistake. We’ll acknowledge them but move on. All I ask is people back off a bit and recognize like every other organization, we make mistakes. The focus will be on what do we learn from those mistakes and how do we improve.”

On what people aren’t talking about when it comes to Transpo:

“That it can be a great way to get around the city. It can be highly effective and efficient and it can be part of your life to help you in terms of lowering your own personal costs, in terms of contribution to the environment. OC Transpo has a great opportunity to be helping the nation’s capital be a great transportation system, an environmentally sensitive organization in terms of emissions. We aren’t talking enough about what OC Transpo is or what it can be.”

On what it will take to get more people to take transit:

“You have to walk the talk. Is (the bus) on time, is it clean, is it accessible, does the driver greet you, do you feel safe in there, do you get to your destination on time, is the fare reasonable? Those things.”

On aspirations of moving up higher in corporation:

“No, I started in 1989 as a construction services assistant in Nepean doing rear yard drainage inspection. When I got that job as an Italian from two Italian immigrants, I thought I won the lottery. Sitting in a cubicle, government job and I never planned out any of these moves. It’s an honour.”

On his one downfall as a manager:

“Not sure. That’s a good one.”

Picture: Manconi outside Ottawa City Hall Monday. Photo by the Sun’s Tony Caldwell.

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Follow City Hall reporter Jon Willing on Twitter at @JonathanWilling and at ottawasun.com

Oh, where to begin on this strange LRT story.

It was shaping up to be a nice little hit — three MPs from different parties sharing a complaint about the city’s LRT changes — until Conservative Royal Galipeau admitted he didn’t have all the facts. He desperately wants a station near Parliament Hill and it took Mayor Jim Watson to point out there will be a station only blocks away.

Of course, the mayor’s office loved this, and why shouldn’t they. Watson’s chief of staff sent out a memo to council after the Galipeau meeting and I’ve pasted it below.

Galipeau told me he was in the House of Commons all day and didn’t have time to do proper research before signing the letter. He talked about a “relationship of trust” with Liberal Mauril Belanger and New Democrat Paul Dewar and noted Belanger was focused on a station in Confederation Square.

I thought something was amiss when I contacted MP John Baird’s office to see if he had a position and his rep said planning decisions are up to the city.

Watson, of course, is well-prepared for an attack like this.

He dismissed Dewar’s opposition by noting the Ottawa Centre MP hasn’t attended one committee meeting on LRT (possibly because he was running for the NDP leadership, Watson offered).

And on Belanger, Watson said it was the Ottawa-Vanier MP who called for a station at the Government Conference Centre ahead of last year’s federal election.

Belanger, by the way, said he’s disappointed the conference centre wouldn’t get a station and dismissed it as a separate issue from the Confederation Square matter.

Just another Friday afternoon on the merry-go-round.

From: Arpin, Serge 

Sent: May 11, 2012 3:31 PM

To: =City Council
Cc: Kirkpatrick, Kent; Schepers, Nancy

Subject: Meeting with Royal Galipeau, MP for Ottawa-Orleans
 
Mayor Watson has asked me to brief you on the outcome of a meeting he had this afternoon with Royal Galipeau, MP for Ottawa-Orleans.
 
Mr. Galipeau was unaware that the City was planning a station on Queen Street between Bank and Metcalfe Streets, within two blocks of Parliament.
 
He was also unaware of the fact that the City was working closely with the National Arts Centre, an important federal agency, to explore the feasibility of a connecting tunnel between the National Arts Centre and the Downtown East Station.
 
After the working meeting, Mr. Galipeau informed the Mayor that he was pleased with the City’s plans for a station at Downtown East and he felt it would serve the parliamentary precinct well.
 
He also told the Mayor that he had full confidence in Council’s ability to manage the LRT project in a diligent way.
 
Please let me know if you have any questions.
 
Serge