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This is why Alstom will be providing 72 of its Citadis Spirit vehicles by 2025, and Rideau Transit Maintenance will be looking after the entire stretch of Confederation Line from Moodie Station to Trim.

Photo by Errol McGihon / Postmedia

The influence of SNC-Lavalin might have been even greater but for the fact the city excluded Rideau Transit Group from competing for the $2.57-billion Confederation Line east-west extension contract won by a consortium led by Kiewit Corp. of Nebraska and Vinci SA of Paris. Officials wanted a fair competition and this was a piece of the project that could be separated out.

SNC-Lavalin could have been eliminated from the Trillium Line extension project as well, but the city was advised by Norton Rose Fulbright that technical and other differences in the makeup of the Trillium Line meant the city could still conduct a fair competition to determine a supplier. “The incumbent advantage for RTG as a potential bidder on the Trillium Line extension is far from clear,” the law firm concluded.

Indeed, the Trillium Line uses trains that rely on diesel engines for power, rather than drawing energy from overhead wires as is the case with the new Confederation Line. Accordingly, the line will rely on the Swiss-built Stadler train, which allows for a conversion from diesel to electrical propulsion. The Alstom Citadis Spirit vehicle doesn’t operate under diesel power.

The city has been roundly criticized for awarding the Stage 2 contracts seven months before LRT launched last fall. Not only was this long before it could be confident the first stage of the system worked, but councillors were angered about how SNC-Lavalin appeared to skate through the Stage 2 evaluations. The company was allowed to proceed to the financial evaluation despite failing to clear a minimum threshold in the technical ranking. Norton Rose Fulbright had advised that the city had the right to overrule its procurement officials.

Should the city have waited another year before deciding the Stage 2 winners?

James Paul, the former CEO of Defence Construction Canada, points out that was a difficult judgment call.

“The city would have been saying last summer, ‘We don’t have perfection, but we have already experienced significant delays and the system has passed most of the testing, so we need to get this thing launched,'” he says. “Real world experience gives you information that no amount of testing will give you and that you should be able to rapidly address during operation. Should you wait until all the bugs are gone? No.”

No one forecast the mess that is unfolding. Choices were made, some as long ago as 60 years, and now this is the system we have. Inside city hall, there is talk about ripping up the maintenance services contract with RTG and finding a replacement that can do better. But even if you supposed a qualified vendor could be found that is not already busy, the dislocations this would cause would make today’s difficulties pale by comparison.

The incentives are in place to force RTG to put the fixes in place — some $436 million in combined capital is at risk. But this is not just a case of trying to avoid even more financial injury. These global firms need to head off damage to their corporate reputations as well. If these incentives don’t do the trick in the next few months, then we really are in trouble.

jbagnall@postmedia.com