Lisa MacLeod offers province's help to fix LRT woes

The provincial government is offering to help the City of Ottawa fix its problem-plagued light rail line.

Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod, the minister for heritage, tourism, culture and sport, said she spoke to Mayor Jim Watson twice Thursday about the line, which has been riddled with delays since launching in September.

"Jim Watson and I have a great working relationship, so I'm happy to reach out to him to see what we can do," MacLeod told CBC News.

MacLeod said she'd been hearing from her own constituents about troubles with the LRT. She then reached out to the Ministry of Transportation to see if they could offer assistance.

While she's not sure if the city requires more funding or additional buses, MacLeod said commuters need the system to be reliable so they can get to work in the morning and home to their families at night.

"We need this, as a city, to be successful," she said.

"We all have a vested interest in wanting this to succeed."

Not time to point fingers

MacLeod added that now is "not the time for finger-pointing," and that the focus should be on finding a solution to the problem.

"On the political level, everyone needs to calm down a bit," she said.

She said she will leave it to the city manager and OC Transpo, as well as other provincial officials, to sort out what's most feasible to ensure the line runs smoothly.

MacLeod also called on the federal government to offer additional support.

Both the provincial and federal governments contributed $600 million to the building of the $2.1-billion Confederation Line.