LILLEY: Ford must come clean on Crosstown mess, not deflect to Liberals

It’s time for the Ford government to be honest with the public about the disaster that is the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

New documents, first reported on by CBC, show that the cost of the Crosstown has increased from $11.8 billion to $12.8 billion and the project still isn’t done. In fact, the quote creating plenty of controversy is that there is a “lack of a credible plan” to finish the project.

This is obviously angering the residents and small business owners in the area who have had deal with years of delays and incompetence on this project. It’s renewed calls for a public inquiry from councillors like Joshn Matlow and Mike Colle.

Matlow is using the failures of this project to continue his push against the idea of P3s or public-private-partnerships. He’s ideologically opposed to this type of project even though we’ve seen successful ones elsewhere just as we’ve seen successful projects managed by government agencies and utter disasters.

The key is good management regardless of the style of project and this one appears to have had bad management all around. The Ford government though is rejecting the idea of a public inquiry without also being upfront with the public on what is causing the never-ending delays. They simply want to blame the Wynne Liberals, which is a bit cheap after being in power for more than four years.

Not that there isn’t plenty of blame to be directed that way.

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The project was first conceived in 2007 and digging began more than a decade ago in 2011. It should have been finished by 2020 but there have been plenty of problems along the way causing delays.

Even if many of those problems started under the Liberals, Ford should have cleaned up the mess by now.

One of the main consultants on this project was a man named Brian Guest. As we learned in the Ottawa LRT inquiry, Guest was someone who had a little transit experience, and no experience with building P3s, when he helped lead that project in the nation’s capital.

Guest though was able to become someone described as an “LRT super consultant” even though the two projects he’s best known for – Ottawa and the Crosstown – haven’t delivered as promised. He ended his direct involvement with Metrolinx earlier this year after some controversy surrounding contracts and executive titles given to him but his firm, Boxfish Group, continues to act as a consulting agency to Metrolinx.

The head of Metrolinx, Phil Verster, came to his job running the massive transit system in 2017 just months after resigning from a top job running Scot Rail. After two years of poor performance running the much smaller Scottish system, Verster left amid controversy in January 2017 but by August was hired by the Wynne government.

“It is critical for Metrolinx to have experienced leadership,” then transportation minister Steven Del Duca said of Verster’s appointment.

Verster brought experience, but whether that’s good experience is up for debate.

Beyond problems at Metrolinx, there are problems at Crosslinx, the consortium awarded the contract to build and maintain the line. Several of the same firms — including EllisDon and SNC-Lavalin and Dragados — are members of the consortium in Ottawa and in Toronto.

Given the scope of the problems in both projects, given the connections between the players and the consultants, maybe much of what we learned from Ottawa’s inquiry could apply here. That includes having Metrolinx and the provincial government be open and transparent with the public about the problems and delays.

An inquiry in Ottawa became necessary because the city was hiding basic information from the public. Premier Ford should be open with the public before an inquiry becomes necessary for the Crosstown.

blilley@postmedia.com