Mr. Larry O'Brien, Mayor,
City of Ottawa

Re: Ottawa transit is approaching a milestone, Ottawa Citizen, October 20, 2009

Dear Mr. O'Brien,

In your column of October 20, 2009 you state that "In recent weeks there
have been many opinions expressed about Ottawa's transit future.
Unfortunately a lot of facts are being ignored".

I have written two recent reports about Ottawa's LRT plans which are posted
on the Transport 2000 Canada website, and which can be viewed at
transport2000.ca. The reports are titled Questions, Questions, and More
Questions about Ottawa's LRT Plans, and Analysis of Responses to Questions,
Questions, and More Questions about Ottawa's LRT Plans.

In the initial report I asked ten questions about the downtown segment of
LRT plans, and eight questions about the use of the Western Parkway as an
LRT route. The City of Ottawa responded to the questions after a delay of
eleven (11) months.

In the Analysis report I evaluated the City of Ottawa responses, and the
picture is not pretty. In brief, the City was failed on all ten questions
involving the downtown segment, and all eight questions involving the
Western Parkway.

The score for the City of Ottawa, Mr. O'Brien, was zero-for-eighteen. As a
result, the City of Ottawa received the grade of F for its responses.

However, to return to the opening paragraph of your column, if you can
establish that pertinent facts were ignored when I evaluated the responses,
then I would be pleased to change the grade. I hasten to add that I look
forward to receiving your communication at the earliest, so that I can
correct my evaluation and inform interested parties accordingly.

And now to your closing paragraph in which you state, "Grabbing an
opportunity like this takes some gutsy decisions. Let's make sure those
decisions are based on fact, not fiction."

As a taxpayer in Ottawa, Ontario, and Canada, I am sure that I am not alone
when I suggest that a multi-billion dollar decision is not the kind of
decision to be made on the basis of signals from one's guts. Rather, I
suggest, it must be based on rational thought processes imbedded in one's
brains, and on knowledge of the various methodologies used in decision
making.

I would therefore appreciate learning, Mr. O'Brien, the names of the
different kinds of decision-making methodologies that you have used and will
continue to use when making decisions about Ottawa transit. And, once again,
I look forward to receiving your communication at the earliest, so that I
can inform interested parties accordingly.

The response will be forwarded as received to various parties. In the
interests of accuracy, time and convenience, please respond via email.

Regards.

Barry Wellar
Professor Emeritus
University of Ottawa