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It’s difficult to know which is more bizarre — the idea that SNC-Lavalin isn’t qualified technically to manage a piece of the second stage of the city’s light rail transit project, or that City of Ottawa officials won’t offer a definitive statement that it is.

When the city revealed two months ago that TransitNEXT — a unit of SNC-Lavalin — was its preferred bidder for managing the $1.6-billion extension of the Trillium Line to the airport and beyond, few eyebrows were raised.

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After all, SNC-Lavalin has deep experience with mass transit, including recent projects in Kuala Lumpur, Qatar, Washington, D.C. and Vancouver.

More relevant, it also has a 40-per-cent stake in Rideau Transit Group, the entity responsible for the first phase of Ottawa’s LRT project. While the launch of LRT service has been delayed several times, it’s not clear whether the blame lies with SNC-Lavalin, its partners, or both. In any case, SNC-Lavalin has acquired plenty of hands-on experience that will be useful in Stage 2.