Thursday, July 15, 2010

City won't ask for discount on land purchase from feds

An artist's rendition of LRT trains emerging from an overpass. © City of Ottawa

According to the Ottawa Sun on Wednesday, City Council voted against issuing a formal request to the Federal Government to buy federally-owned land for Ottawa's LRT project for $1. Instead, the city is going to budget $40M for land acquisition. The mentality of the decision:
Deputy city manager Nancy Schepers said staff fear the request could “skew” discussions for the light-rail project and others.
One can perhaps see why, during discussion of the project, the city would be well-served not to expect the city to make this request. And a decision today doesn't preclude Council from, in the future, making the request, nor does it preclude the Federal Government from making some sort of concession during the negotiation process.

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