Ottawa councillor denies questions to OC Transpo head were a ‘personal attack’

December 15, 2024 Canuck

Ottawa city councillor Riley Brockington says he doesn’t believe he overstepped in his line of questioning during a debate on the transit budget this week after the head of OC Transpo accused him of making a “personal attack” against her.

At the start of his remarks during discussions on the transit budget Wednesday, the River ward councillor asked city manager Wendy Stephanson about her role in overseeing the performance of OC Transpo general manager Renée Amilcar.

“You are the direct supervisor of the general manager of OC Transpo, is that correct,” Brockington asked Stephanson during the meeting. She confirmed that she was.

“And you develop her personal work objectives and assess her at the end of the year on her performance,” he asked.

Stephanson replied that she conducts an annual performance review.

“Despite that we have a transit commission, transit commissioners are not formally asked by you to provide input on that assessment, is that correct?” Brockington asked.

“I generally reach out to council one or two times per year to do check in’s and during those check in’s, I want feedback on how we’re doing and that discussion involves how the general managers are doing with their departments and their portfolios,” Stephanson replied.

Coun. Matthew Luloff intervened and proposed the meeting be moved in camera to avoid discussing an individual’s work performance in public. Sutcliffe asked Brockington to stay focused on transit budget discussions.

Brockington then moved on to questions regarding bus reliability, saying he hadn’t seen realistic solutions in the budget that would tackle the high percentage of bus routes that run late.

The councillor would later vote against the transit budget but in favour of the city budget overall.

During a news conference after the budget vote, Amilcar was asked what she thought about Brockington’s comments.

“It was a personal attack and I’m going to stay focused with my team to do what I love the best, which is deliver a good service,” Amilcar told reporters.

Brockington called Amilcar’s comments “unfortunate.”

“I support madame Amilcar in her role as general manager. I want her to perform well,” he told Newstalk 580’s CFRA Live on Saturday.

“But I need to give her the resources that she needs for the transit system to run as effectively as it can be and for bus reliability to be better and I’ve raised that consistently.”

Coun. Tim Tierney, who sits on transit commission, told CFRA that he would like to see Brockington apologize for his comments.

Brockington insists the questions were made in context of the budget, stressing that late buses are contributing to stagnant ridership numbers and is asking city staff to show how they plan to fix it.

“This is not the first time I’ve raised bus reliability. I am a transit commissioner. I consistently raise my concerns with the metrics we’re getting every month,” Brockington said.

“There are many factors that contribute to bus reliability, I acknowledge, but I need to see progress.”

According to data presented to transit commission last month, an average of one in every four buses that runs at a frequency of every 16 minutes or greater was not on time in the last year. OC Transpo has a target of having 85 per cent of bus trips arriving on time.

In October 2024, one out of every five frequent buses and three out of every 10 less frequent buses was late.

Brockington said he voted against the transit budget in part because of the lack of reassurances from staff that realistic solutions were being sought.

“My questioning is solely focused on improving bus reliability in this city for our riders,” he said.

“Its time for this system to work and work well and the only way that we’ll rebuild confidence and trust in the system is to deliver consistently reliable service.”

With files from Newstalk 580 CFRA

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