The downtown Ottawa transit tunnel is too big and important to be left for politicians to mess it up, mayoral candidate Jim Watson said yesterday.
If he’s elected, Watson has promised to appoint an independent arms-length management board to control construction of the $2.1-billion light rail line from Tunney’s Pasture to Blair Road through the downtown tunnel.
Watson also wants Infrastructure Ontario to be responsible for awarding the major contracts, since they have more experience with projects this size and the city has questionable credibility within the rail industry because of the previously cancelled project.
“They lost a lot of confidence when the city cancelled the last light rail,” he said.
