Our new GM: a brief history of Rick Leary

Ten months after the departure of former general manager Renée Amilcar, OC Transpo has a new head: Rick Leary. 

You can watch the city's press conference introducing him here. 

Mr. Leary has held executive positions in Boston, York Region, and Toronto. According to the memo City Manager Wendy Stephenson sent to Council: 

Rick has extensive experience overseeing integrated bus, light rail, subway, and streetcar systems, with responsibility for operations, maintenance, safety, and long‑term asset management ... [his] experience includes managing aging infrastructure, supporting the integration of new and expanding services, and ensuring the successful delivery of capital projects.  

Given his extensive experience, I am confident that Rick is well positioned to lead the Transit Services department in an inspiring and empowering way while strengthening Ottawa’s growing multi-modal transit system.  

Actually, Mr. Leary has extensive experience in obfuscating service quality, hiding safety issues, and agency mismanagement. With his record, Council should question the hiring process that led to his appointment.  

Transit Committee - 12 February, 2026

On the 12th of February, Transit Committee met for the first time in 2026. The video of this meeting can be found here. 

Since the last Transit Committee in November, bus service has continued to deteriorate, and adding to OC Transpo's troubles, most of the Line 1 fleet was ordered out of service after spalling was discovered on the cartridge bearing assemblies (CBAs). There is currently no timeline to return the trains to service. Most of this meeting was, understandably, dedicated to these two crises.

Despite the quixotic self-congratulations from OC Transpo and from Transit Committee, delegations and the state of service reveal a system full of problems. As long as councillors do not feel urgency on this file, transit will continue to be a whack-a-mole of acute and chronic problems. 

Documents from this meeting: 

• Electric Bus program inquiry
• Outstanding motions and inquiries