I was amazed to learn that Ottawa City Council was unable to debate the issue of the pilot project for a transit pass for University of Ottawa students (24,000 of them) on what appears to be a rules of procedure technicality. So there will be no pilot project even though council’s transportation committee had voted unanimously in favor of the program.
According to Patrick Dare (Ottawa Citizen, Councillors vote against waiving rules for debate, March 12, 2009) city solicitor Rick O'Connor said council should waive the rules of procedure because the university pass issue was already debated on in December 2008 and he was supported on this issue by the mayor. The required three quarters majority required to waive the rules was of course not there, good going Mr. Mayor!
To my recollection this debate was never completed, because council agreed to resume debate on the issue after the budget was passed and this indication was certainly given to students attending the council meeting back in December. And of course the transit strike has further delayed resumption of any discussions.
It is now unlikely that a student pass will be available in the City of Ottawa for several years. This is particularly unfortunate at a time when the city is trying to recover ridership figures again after a long and inconvenient transit strike.
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