Last winter’s bus strike cost the city $5.9 million, Ottawa auditor general Alain Lalonde told city councillors Wednesday.

Originally expected to be revenue neutral, the bus strike cost the city because of a combination of decreased revenue and greater than anticipated costs for social programs aimed to ease the impact of the strike on city residents, said Lalonde.

Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet said Ottawa residents deserve a better explanation for why the strike cost so much.

“There was a least a ray of hope here that we came out of this revenue neutral,” he said. “But in fact we didn’t.”

Council asked the auditor general to meet with city manager Kent Kirkpatrick to discuss the best approach to prepare a report on the details of why the strike put the city in the red.

“I think the citizens and council want a greater understanding of the mechanisms that went on,” said Mayor Larry O’Brien.