Former mayor Jim Watson and outgoing city manager Steve Kanellakos committed "deliberate malfeasance" that resulted in "egregious violations of the public trust" in rushing the launch of Ottawa's LRT system in 2019, that according to LRT public inquiry commissioner Justice William Hourigan who released his final report on Wednesday.

"While human errors are understandable and expected, deliberate malfeasance is unacceptable in a public project. When participants deliberately mislead the public regarding the status of a public undertaking, they violate a fundamental obligation that underlies all public endeavours," Justice Hourigan writes in his concluding statement

"The conduct (of Watson and Kanellakos) prevented councillors from fulfilling their statutory duties to the people of Ottawa. Moreover, it is part of a concerning approach taken by senior City officials to control the narrative by the nondisclosure of vital information or outright misrepresentation. Worse, because the conduct was wilful and deliberate, it leads to serious concerns about the good faith of senior City staff and raises questions about where their loyalties lie."

Specifically, Justice Hourigan says that Watson and Kanellakos deliberately misled council by failing to inform them that the testing criteria had been lowered and by misrepresenting the testing results.

"Most troubling was the deliberate effort by Steve Kanellakos, the City Manager, to mislead Council on the decision to lower the testing criteria and on the testing results," Justice Hourigan writes in his report. In particular, Hourigan states that the outgoing city manager "disseminated misinformation and hide critical facts from Council".

Testing of the LRT system was suspended in July 2019 after significant problems arose during the first three days of testing, however, Kanellakos elected not to inform council of the decision with the intent of sticking to a September, 2019 launch date which Watson had already promised to the media and the public.

Watson elected not to run for re-election and Kanellakos tendered his resignation to the City on Monday, effective Dec. 5.

Former OC Transo head John Manconi and Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley were also part of the senior management team which Hourigan says committed "egregious violations of the public trust". Manconi retired in May, 2021, while Hubley, who was Ottawa Transit Commission chair at the time, was recently re-elected.

Justice Hourigan says the problems with the LRT system started with senior staff recommending that the project be awarded to an a company that had zero experience building an LRT system in North America using trains that were unproven in a northern climate, and council agreeing.

The problem was compounded by former mayor Watson's determination to have the LRT operational by the fall of 2019, which brought potitcal pressure to bear on senior staff and the consortium chosen to build and operate the LRT system. It was also in the consortium's financial best interest to have the LRT operational by the same date.

To that end, the Rideau Trasit Group (RTG) and Ottawa Light Rail Transit Constructors (OLRT-C) continuously provided unrealistic target dates for the construction and completion of the rail line which created unrealistic expectations on the part of city council members and the general public.

When the LRT was launched it had not been adequately tested and problems known to the RTG, OLRT-C, the former mayor and senior staff had not yet been resolved. Those issues would eventually manifest themselves in the weeks and months following the launch which resulted in delays and shutdowns in service much to the chagrin of the transit riding public.

Justice Hourigan does end his executive summary on an optimistic note by saying that the parties have begun working together more co-operatively and the reliability of the system is showing some signs of improvement. "This improvement demonstrates that, over time, structural problems canbe resolved through good faith, communication, and co-operation," writes Justice Hourigan.