By Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen, March 22, 2019
Ottawa Council’s decision to choose SNC-Lavalin as one of the contractors for the next stage of light rail looked bad enough when we knew that the bid was significantly over the city’s estimate; the company is part of the consortium that repeatedly failed to meet deadlines on the first phase of LRT; and it is embroiled in a corruption controversy. Now, the CBC reports that SNC’s bid did not meet the city’s technical requirements, a problem which would typically disqualify a bid.
It is time Mayor Jim Watson and senior city staff gave the public some straight answers on what is going on with the $1.6-billion extension of the Trillium Line. Instead, they are stonewalling. When the contract came to city council for approval, Coun. Diane Deans asked if the company had met the technical requirements. Simple question, but it produced only an evasive answer. Now, we know why.
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/denley-secrecy-over-snc-lavalins-bid-for-ottawas-stage-2-lrt-is-unacceptable