Questions were asked on Tuesday, when it was revealed that the Rideau Transit Group would not be facing a penalty for extending the Light Rail project by six months.
Councillors called it the 'million dollar question', wondering how costs incurred by the city would be paid.
Speaking with CFRA, Mayor Jim Watson said that the Rideau Transit Group would be responsible for paying for the extra buses and bus drivers put on the roads while construction continues.
"Our staff will calculate those numbers as the months go along and an invoice will be sent to RTG," Watson explained.
On Wednesday, Chair of the Transit Commission Stephen Blais clarified that even further.
"It's not exactly going to be an invoice," he said. "We're not going to start paying for the maintenance for the train because we haven't taken possession of it."
Blais said that the money set out to pay RTG for running the LRT will now be used to pay for these things, like the extra buses.
When asked if she felt she was misled by the contract with the RTG, Councillor Marianne Wilkinson told CFRA that the provision about avoiding the penalty wasn't clear.
"We don't read detailed contracts, they're so complex to understand all of the language that is beyond most of us," she said. “What we depend on is the summaries that we are given of what is in the contract and the concerns that have been made.”
Evan Solomon asked if the people of Ottawa be able to trust that councillors read the fine print on contracts for the city's biggest project.
"If we read the fine print on every contract that the city does, we wouldn't even be able to have time enough to read them all," she responded.
Wilkinson explained that the penalty details were not laid out in any of the reports she was given.
Meanwhile, City Manager Steve Kanellakos has issued a memo that attempts to clarify the reasons behind the missing penalty.
The memo states that two options were given to the Rideau Transit Group.
By November 24th, 2017, the RTG had to make a decision as to whether or not they would make the May 24th, 2018 deadline.
RTG said they would meet the initial deadline but that it could be pushed back due to 'Delay Events' (such as the sinkhole) and the city took that to mean they would not meet the May 24th, 2018 deadline.
On February 5th, the city received a letter from the RTG stating that November 2nd would become the new Revenue Service Availability date.
This contract now means if the $2.1 billion LRT project is not completed by the new date, then they will be forced to pay a $1 million penalty.