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The law firm that advised the city on its LRT Stage 2 project is the same firm that advises SNC-Lavalin, the company that eventually won the $1.6 billion contract.

That contract has been the subject of much discussion over the past week, when it became clear that the controversial Quebec engineering firm didn’t meet the scoring threshold for its technical plan to expand the Trillium Line.

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Norton Rose Fulbright, the city’s chief external legal adviser on the Stage 2 project, which includes extensions of the Confederation Line LRT and the Trillium Line, won a city contract to provide legal services for Stage 2. Geoffrey Gilbert, a procurement and commercial law expert, was the firm’s lead lawyer advising the City of Ottawa during the Stage 2 procurement.

The fact that Norton Rose Fulbright also represents SNC came up on March 6, 2019 when council was debating the Stage 2 contracts.

At the council meeting, Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney pursued the line of questioning before being told by the mayor that it was out of order during a debate about whether the Stage 2 contract decision should be deferred.