Mayor Jim Watson responded to comments from the General Manager of the Greater Ottawa Truckers Association Sunday morning.
After GM Ron Barr told CFRA he was surprised he wasn't invited to a meeting in regards to cycling safety, Watson told Kristy Cameron on The Newsfeed that he had no reason to be at the meeting.
"The meeting wasn't about trucking, it was about cycling ... The reality is it's not about him, and it's not about his members. It's about making the streets safer for cyclists."
Barr told CFRA last week that he wants his drivers to be required to take refresher courses on sharing the roads with cyclists, and that he also wanted to be a part of the Laurier Avenue bike lane audit and working group.
Watson responded to those comments as well, saying his agenda has nothing to do with cycling safety.
"He's saying that truckers need education. Well, that's his job. He doesn't have to come to a cycling meeting to tell us that."
Watson also said that the meeting held last week was scheduled long before the fatal collision that happened on Laurier September 1, taking the life of 23-year-old Nusrat Jahan.
This is a corrected story. A previous version had said Nusrat Jahan died in August.