By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, November 13, 2014
OC Transpo’s declining ridership has taken a bite out of the money the city’s counted on getting from the provincial government for major transit projects for decades to come, including light rail.
That didn’t come up in what was clearly supposed to be a good-news announcement Thursday at OC Transpo’s big garage on Industrial Avenue. Ottawa MPPs Bob Chiarelli, Marie-France Lalonde, John Fraser and Yasir Naqvi stood in front of some double-decker buses with one councillor Shad Qadri, vice-chair of the transit commission; Mayor Jim Watson and commission chair Diane Deans were otherwise engaged and a second-tier manager from OC Transpo. They were quite pleased with themselves.