News & Opinion

PRESS RELEASE: Horizon Ottawa calls for resignation of former Transit Chair Allan Hubley and for more consequences for rest of “WhatsApp Four”

OTTAWA - Horizon Ottawa is calling on former Transit Commission Chair and Kanata-South City Councillor Allan Hubley to resign in light of the damning LRT Inquiry Report and has asked other residents to do so in an online petition campaign. Hubley was involved in deliberately withholding information about LRT testing failures with now-former City Manager Steve Kanellakos, former OC Transpo GM John Manconi, and former Mayor Jim Watson.

Hubley’s involvement was brought to light this summer, following the publication of messages of a WhatsApp group chat between him and the three others mentioned above. In the chat, they shared information about testing of the train, but that was never shared with the rest of City Council. In the chat, and through other testimony, it was revealed that the testing criteria was lowered so the O-Train would be able to pass testing.

“It is obvious based on the information we have seen in the final report and that we saw throughout this summer, that Councillor Allan Hubley was at the very least privy to, if not heavily involved in, decision-making around withholding information to the rest of city council” said Sam Hersh, a Board Member of Horizon Ottawa. “Given that, we think that the only appropriate move for Hubley is to resign his council seat out of respect to residents of Ottawa.”

Horizon Ottawa is also calling for those involved in the chat be held accountable including: 

- Former Mayor, Jim Watson
- Former City Manager,Steve Kanellakos, 
- Former OC Transpo GM, John Manconi
- Chief of Staff to Mayor Watson, Serge Arpin
- Director of Issues in Mayor Watson’s Office,  Mathieu Gravel
- Director of the City Manager’s Office, Steve Box
- Manager and Special Advisor to the General Manager, Jocelyn Bégin

“It is important to hold Mr. Hubley to account but we know that he is not alone in exacerbating this mess”, said Hersh, “We need to ensure that everyone involved in covering up information that led to the erosion of our transit system does not evade accountability and faces necessary consequences - they cannot just get off scot free”.

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For Media Inquiries:

Sam Hersh
[email protected]
613-663-7018

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