Auditor to scrutinize OC Transpo scheduling

The City of Ottawa's auditor general plans toinvestigatehow OC Transpo calculates demand for transit and rolls out its schedules, but won't pick through what happened during the launch of LRT this fall.

Thelast-minute addition to Ken Hughes'sworkload for 2020 means his office will drop two other audits that had been planned.

There are questions we all have. That's not part of this audit.- Ken Hughes

"This is not an audit of the [LRT] launch," Hughes underlined several times at Tuesday's meeting of the audit committee. "There are questions we all have. That's not part of this audit."

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Councillors don't get to decide what the auditor looks into, but several said what they really want Hughes to dig into is the ill-fated Confederation Line launch, so they couldlearn why itwent so badly for transit users.

For example, Coun. Catherine McKenneysaid she wants answers about the calculations behind the decisionto pull some 175 buses off the road.

"I just don't know how we can look forward without looking just in the rearview mirror a wee bit," McKenney said Tuesday.

AG to look into fare evasion

Hughes said instead, he'll focus onhow OC Transpo determineswhere riders need to go and when, and how it uses that information to schedule buses and trains.

"I think it's good on the auditor general to add this. It goes to an essential service, and we need answers," said Coun. Carol Anne Meehan.

Hughes will also conduct an audit into fare evasion on OC Transpo, and will tap into the expertise of other citiesthat have looked into the same phenomenon.

Meehan tried to prevent Hughes from dropping two audits one looking at the city's purchasing card payment system, the other looking atIT hardware and asset management by pulling an extra $200,000 from reserves, but she received no support from the rest of the committee.

West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantirysaid he was unwilling to draw money from the samefund the city turns to foremergencies, such as the flooding that devastated his ward in 2017 and 2019.