City had a secret plan to rent buses for $1M a week

Last November, as OC Transpo planned to refurbish 40 older buses and buy 19 more to supplement its struggling LRT, the transit agency also hatched an ambitious and secret plan.

It put out an urgent call to Ontario Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney to find up to 150 buses — rentals to get Ottawa through to the end of 2019.

The city was willing to pay $1 million a week. The loan never took place, but documents from an access-to-information request show how there was a flurry of activity as Transpo’s urgent call for help was put through to Metrolinx, the provincial rail and bus agency in the Toronto area.

By early November, Transpo was scrambling to get more buses on the road to back up LRT. Officials told the city’s transit commission at a Nov. 6 meeting that they had 40 buses scheduled for disposal that would instead be refurbished. And there was already a plan to buy 19 new buses.

But one week later, Transpo called for help from the province.

An email went out to top Metrolinx officials: “Below is an urgent and confidential request from MTO, inquiring whether Metrolinx is in a position to help the City of Ottawa with bus support at least until the end of December as they try and work through their LRT issues.

“The City of Ottawa has estimated that they need 150 buses at an estimated $1 M per week.”

The ministry asked whether Metrolinx had spare buses or buses “slated for sale or decommissioning.” It also asks about the costs and legal implications of shifting GO bus drivers from southern Ontario to Ottawa.

And the email, sent at 6 p.m., asked for at least a preliminary answer by 9 a.m. the next day.

That started the emails humming at Metrolinx. CEO Phil Verster wrote late that evening: “If ever there was a time to fix a lot of buses and ship these off, this is it.”

An email from the ministry called the request “an urgent request from the Minister’s Office. This is highly confidential for the time being, but we’ve been asked to look at options to provide emergency relief to Ottawa …”

Inside Metrolinx, there was talk of supplying up to 32 buses and possibly some recently retired drivers and technical advisers “as OC Transpo have limited in-house rail expertise.” Ottawa city hall confirmed Friday that Metrolinx never did send buses or advisers, and there was no cost to the city.