Estimated cost of Red Hill Valley Parkway inquiry now as high as $20M
Dan Taekema | CBC News | Posted: December 8, 2021 10:18 PM | Last Updated: December 8, 2021
City has already racked up $11M in costs, according to report
The expected cost of an inquiry into Hamilton's Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP) has ballooned to as much as $20 million.
The city has already racked up more than $11 million in costs, and that price tag is only expected to rise as the probe continues in the new year, says a report presented to city council's general issues committee on Wednesday.
The current dollar figure has already hit the high end of initial estimates, which suggested the inquiry would cost the city between $1 and $11 million.
Now legal staff calculate the inquiry could total between $18 and $20 million, the report says.
The inquiry is set to examine how a damning report about the RHVP stayed buried for six years.
That 2013 Tradewind Scientific report showed friction in some areas of the highway fell well below U.K. safety standards. There are no similar standards in North America.
The city said in 2018 that the report was only found in a locked computer folder after the city hired a new engineering director.
A class action lawsuit seeking more than $260 million has also been proposed, though it is separate from the inquiry.
It's expected the cost of the inquiry will "increase significantly" as it moves toward the hearing stage, which has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The probe has also been plagued by slowdowns during document collection, which Commissioner Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel previously said left him disappointed.
The judge will tackle 24 questions, including who saw the report, why council wasn't told and if drivers were put at risk.
Between $6 and $7 million in added costs are anticipated between November and August 2022, the city report says.
City councillors will discuss the matter in camera Wednesday evening. But Brad Clark, Ward 9 (upper Stoney Creek) councillor, wanted to know if the city is slow providing documents to Wilton-Siegel.
'Incredibly disappointed'
"I'm incredibly disappointed that the costs have gone up as a result of this delay," he said.
Lloyd Ferguson, Ward 12 (Ancaster) councillor, was one of only two councillors who voted against a judicial review in 2019. He said he'll keep voting against it.
"When I opened up this report, I was shocked," he said. "It's already cost us $11 million and the darn thing hasn't even started yet."
"It's just such a waste of taxpayers' dollars."
Brenda Johnson, Ward 11 (Glanbrook) councillor, agreed. "I can't tell you how many rec centres we'll have to blow over to pay for this."
The costs so far have been covered by Hamilton's tax stabilization reserve, according to the report.
A new timeline for the inquiry, provided by by staff, suggests the hearings will finally begin by April — the second quarter of 2022 — and the inquiry will reach the report stage by the end of next year.