Major public infrastructure projects require years to plan, engineer and finance. Abandoning them just as they are about to be constructed triggers immense direct and indirect costs. I don't believe most of Ottawa realizes to this day just how absolutely disastrous the cancellation of that project was for the entire city. Politically, it rendered the council impotent.
Giving in to the new mayor's 11th-hour campaign promise to re-write 58 separate votes by two councils over eight years; then disconnecting from hundreds of millions of federal/provincial funding dollars without any alternative but some to-be-determined recommendations of a volunteer committee, gave the council no choices but what the mayor and staff presented. If Ottawa City Council could cancel a procurement process which had won a national award, send German engineers home and then start making decisions by the seat of its pants -- then say goodbye to coherent, due diligence decision making on anything.
I predict a similar scenario will play out in Toronto. If the council caves in to the new mayor, it will run from one ad-hoc decision to another.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Clive+Doucet+Toronto+heed+Ottawa+rail+experience/3949414/story.html#ixzz17iqH7gwNToronto's new mayor has big ideas, but they can mostly be classified as "impossible without spending huge amounts of money" or "stupid".
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momijizukamori
