Hamilton city council agrees to hand over more documents in RHVP Inquiry

Hamilton city council has agreed to hand over documents to the Red Hill Valley Parkway inquiry. The council was reluctant to release the documents because they are legally sensitive.

In a private meeting today, city council agreed unanimously to release the relevant documents. Out of the 56 documents 51 of them are being released.

A judge had ruled the city should hand over the papers even though they’re legally protected or privileged as communications between the city and its lawyers. The judge said the inquiry has to be able to do its job.

As of now, we don’t know the specifics of the documents. The documents will be presented to the Red Hill Valley Parkway inquiry.

The inquiry was called after hundreds of accidents and four deaths on the parkway, and a safety report on slippery road conditions that were hidden for years.

Counsellor Jason Farr has seen many of the documents but not all of them. Farr says things will become clearer in the future, “there will be a greater understanding of why they were to this point not public.”

The decision comes as the costs of the Red Hill inquiry have grown with the latest estimate up to $28 million or more.

Candidates are lining up for a new council that will have to deal with whatever the inquiry decides. One of the last-minute candidates for council was Don Ross, a former councillor who thinks there might have been a better way to handle the Red Hill inquiry.

“It seems like something has happened, something’s gone amiss and I’m not sure who the blame is. The cost of what’s happening is enormous for people of Hamilton,” Ross said.

Election day is October 24th and with nominations closed there are now seven people running for mayor, including high-profile candidates Andrea Horwath, Bob Bratina and Keanin Loomis. Mayor Fred Eisenberger is not running again.