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.  

Renee Amilcar leaves OC Transpo, path forward is unclear

Introduction 

Renée Amilcar announced early this month that she would resign from her position as General Manager at OC Transpo, and move to Montreal as head of Mobilé Infra Québec. This has both written annd unwritten implications for the future of OC Transpo. This indicates problems bubbling beneath the surface, ones that will be increasingly hard to fix as the institution continues to fossilize. We need reform, and we need reform now if we want to pursue a successful transit policy in Ottawa. 

(I apologize for any weird formatting issues and the short length. I am abroad, so this is hastily written from my phone as opposed to my laptop, as usual) 

OC Transpo: a transit agenda for the New Year

It's 2025, the first segment of Stage 2 has launched, and another network semi-redesign is imminent. OC Transpo is in crisis mode again, with federal dollars not appearing, a crisis of confidence, and a city that wants to cut, cut, cut. 

What next? 

In this post, I will set out some priority items that City Council and OC Transpo should work towards. These represent my opinion only; but I believe that their implementation will go a long way in making Ottawa a transit city.