LeBreton, legal issues overshadow council's accomplishments

From the opening of a spectacular new city art gallery to funding the expansion of the LRT, the council that ends its four-year reign at the end of this week does have reasons to be proud.

And we will surely hear about those successes Wednesday morning at the final council meeting of the term.

But this council, which ends its official duty at midnight Friday, is going out with something of a whimper, instead of the bang it would have preferred.

In the past weeks, the mayor has been embroiled in two lawsuits, a councillor has been charged with bribery and the collapse of the LeBreton Flats redevelopment negotiations has called into question the future of a large swath of central Ottawa.

First, the good news

There have been successes.

The opening of the Ottawa Art Gallery and the Innovation Centre brings two attractive city-building spaces onto the scene.

Council approved a new central library in conjunction with the federal Library and Archives Canada, something no council has been able to accomplish despite discussing it for decades.

The city also helped deliver some memorable times for Canada's 150th birthday celebrations, with La Machine showing the world that perhaps fun has not forgotten Ottawa altogether. 

However, this council's most significant accomplishment has been securing funding for the second phase of light rail, which comes with a price tag of more than $3 billion.

While the recently elected Progressive Conservatives at Queen's Park are still "reviewing" the $2.08 billion committed by the previous Liberal government, there is currently no reason to believe that money is in jeopardy.

LRT could still be a win for council

And in the big scheme of things, the first phase of the light rail should be seen as a win — with major caveats.

Sure, it's been delayed twice, the most recent postponement coming as a shock to most councillors when they heard about it in the middle of an election campaign.

It won't be on budget. And there will likely be a legal dispute at the end of it all over who owes what.

Still, if the people of Ottawa are actually riding a train by the end of March, and the launch goes relatively smoothly, then a delay of less than a year — especially considering the issues caused by the Rideau sinkhole — is within the norm for a project of this magnitude.

Ending on sour note

There were controversial council decisions, too, such as allowing Uber to operate legally in Ottawa or approving a 350-bed Salvation Army shelter for Montreal Road in Vanier.

But the last few weeks have cast a pall over City Hall that is likely to continue.

Coun. Tim Tierney was charged on Friday by the OPP under the Municipal Elections Act with bribery for allegedly offering to make a donation to a local food bank if his sole competitor in the campaign dropped out.

Tierney is currently allowed to remain in office, but if found guilty, he would have to step down from his position at council.

Last month the mayor was sued by three local political activists who charged that he infringed on their constitutional right to freedom of expression by blocking them on Twitter. 

Watson originally tried to argue his Twitter account was personal.

Then, earlier this month, the mayor said he would stop blocking people on Twitter, clearly a victory for those who sued him.

​LeBreton fiasco

That's not the only lawsuit that involves the mayor.

Although Eugene Melnyk's shocking lawsuit against his Rendezvous LeBreton partners does not name the mayor as a defendant, Watson and his office are included in Melnyk's statement of claim.

Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that Watson knew that Melnyk wanted out of the $4-billion project by at least September, if not earlier, and that the mayor's chief of staff threatened to cut off all ties with Melnyk if he withdrew from the project during the election campaign.

The collapse of the LeBreton project has much more important ramifications for the city than political embarrassment in the mayor's office, however.

The redevelopment was supposed to include a new NHL arena, 4,000 residential units, commercial and office space, a French elementary school and public areas.

It was a major city-building project that was supposed to bring thousands of new people into the core, all served by two new LRT stations.

Now those stations — Pimisi on the east and Bayview on the west — flank a 20-hectare empty space.

The new central library is supposed to be built on the eastern edge of LeBreton, the location partly chosen because of the expected influx of people into the area.

Does is still make sense to build the library there?

Moving forward with LeBreton should have been a shining moment for the city.

Instead, it's turned into a massive disappointment and possible controversy for people at City Hall, hardly how council would have wanted to bring its last four years to a close.