Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Leaked memos on Siemens lawsuit reveal council confusion

Ottawa Citizen reporter Ken Gray published a number of leaked memos surrounding the cancelled North-South transit line and subsequent lawsuit from Siemens, mostly involving Capital Ward Councillor Clive Doucet.

Councillors Debate Merits of Siemens Lawsuit: Leaked Memos

Councillors Demand Information On Siemens Lawsuit: Leaked Memos

The memos reveal a significant degree of secrecy surrounding the lawsuit, and a fair degree of unwillingness to discuss any possible options Council could pursue, even in-camera.

A certain question posed by Councillor Doucet intrigues me, as well, and I'm sure most citizens would be interested in hearing any details in response. The e-mail, sent to City Solicitor Rick O'Connor, came back with a response stating that any discussion of these possibilities was already approached--which Doucet disagreed with.
It's clear the city is going to have to pay a settlement to Siemens in one of three ways: 1) the court will impose one; 2) there will be an out of court settlement; 3) the settlement will be made via a partial restoration of the old project with Siemens getting this contract as part of the settlement.

My question regarding these three options is "Have we approached Siemens or have they approached us about settling via a partial restoration of the project?" If the answer is in the affirmative, can we have some details on what exactly that third option might look like?

2 comments:

Dwight Williams said...

Very good question.

Has it ever been answered?

Peter Raaymakers said...

Not sure, but this article from the Ottawa Sun (as posted in the OC Transpo LiveJournal) might offer some insight:

http://community.livejournal.com/octranspo/605159.html