Waterloo Region residents will be able to access monthly reports on the construction status of the region’s 14 light rail vehicles from now until the vehicles are completed.
Regional councillors voted Wednesday night to order monthly public status reports.
“I think we need to increase the amount of transparency connected to Ion, particularly because of the lateness of the rail cars,” Coun. Sean Strickland said in an interview following the vote.
“The more the community knows about the progress of the rail cars and how soon we’re going to get to our start date … I think it’s going to be better for everyone.”
The reports will be based on weekly status updates the region receives from Bombardier. Strickland said Bombardier’s information will be modified into “a document that’s easily understandable by the community.”
Regional Chair Ken Seiling says he’s in favour of the new reports, but takes issue with the suggestion that the region has not been open with information about the Ion project.
“I don’t think there’s an issue with transparency,” he said Thursday.
“We’ve been very open. Whenever we’ve had information, we’ve shared it.”
The light rail vehicles were originally expected to have been delivered to Waterloo Region by the end of 2016. Manufacturing issues led to a series of delays, with the new target being to have all 14 vehicles complete by the end of June.
Regional officials say they have no reason to doubt Bombardier’s ability to finish building the vehicles within the next 10 weeks.
“We now have what we think is a final, firm timetable for the delivery of the vehicles,” Seiling said.
The Ion light rail transit system was initially expected to launch in late 2017. That target was later pushed back to spring 2018, and more recently to December 2018.
With reporting by Christina Succi
