Red Hill Valley Parkway Inquiry releases hundreds of city emails related to friction report

The Red Hill Valley Parkway Inquiry resumedThursday releasing documents includinghundreds of emails between city staff regardinga damning 2013 friction report involving the parkway to light.

It also heard testimony from city of Hamilton engineerDipanker Sharma, who gathered data for the 2018 city audit that brought the friction report to light.

The 2013 Tradewind Scientific report revealed that areas of the Red Hill Valley Parkway fell below the U.K. friction standard, of which there is no North American equivalent.

On Thursday, theinquiry heard that then director of engineering, Gord McGuire, allegedly redacted information about the2013 frictionreport when providing documents to city auditors, and that prior to the 2013 report's findings being made public, city engineers may have discussed erecting a 'Slippery When Wet' sign near the Red Hill Valley Parkway.

Red Hill Valley Parkway had 862 collisions between 2013 and 2017, including the 2014 deaths of Aaron Haire, 18, and Kristine Williams, 19, as well as the 2015 deaths of Jordyn Hastings and Olivia Smosarki, both 19-years-old at the time.

The inquiry reviewed notes from a Dec. 12 2018 meeting about the Red Hill Valley Parkway, between McGuire, McGuire's administrative assistant Diana Cameron and Sharma. During the meeting, the attendees allegedly discussedplacing 'Slippery When Wet' signs near the Red Hill Valley Parkway.

Sharma testified that he did not remember this part of the meeting.

The inquiry is not a trial, even though witnesses are under oath to tell the truth,Robert Centa, former lead commission counsel on the inquiry, previously said when still in the role. (Emily Lawrence and Andrew C. Lewis remain commission counsel.)

The hearings, led by Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel, aren't leading to conclusions about civil or criminal liability, but Centapreviouslysaid it will establish the facts.

The total estimated cost of the inquiry, according to city legal staff, was supposed to total between $18 and $20 million, but now it's expected to cost over $26 million.

Mayor Fred Eisenbergerhas said he regrets going the route of the inquiry, because of the cost.

"It was chosen for all the right reasons but the original estimates of costs were grossly underestimated," he tweeted on Aug. 6.

Two weeks ago, city council voted not to appeal a recent order to release 50 legally sensitive documents it tried to withhold from the inquiry.

Hundreds of city worker emails released

On Thursday, the Red Hill Valley Parkway Inquiry released documentsused in their hearing, which included hundreds of emails between city staff regarding the 2013 Tradewindstudy, which was published in 2014 by Golder Associates and is also referred to as the Golder report.

Sharma was a project manager with the city's continuous improvement department between 2018 and 2019. He gathered data for city of Hamilton auditor Dominic Pellegrini, who was head of the Value for Money roads audit.

During the inquiry, Red Hill Valley Inquiry lawyer Hailey Bruckner went through email chains between Sharma, McGuire, Cameron, and Pellegrini, about finding and sharing the 2013 Tradewindstudy for the roads audit.

While the city commissioned the 2013 Tradewindstudy, its data was locked in a folder only accessible to the director of engineering for almost sixyears.

McGuire was the city's director of engineering from 2018 to 2021, and uncovered the folder during the audit in Sept. 2018, said Dan McKinnon, the city's general manager of public works.

The emails said the Golder report was heavily redacted when it was sent to Pellegrini. The redacted version blacked out data about the friction issues on the Red Hill Valley Parkway and stopped at page 100, where the original report was 153 pages long.

Sharma testified that all the data Pellegrini requested in the audit was meant to be passed through him, but the redacted Golder report was notsent to him.

Emails appear to show McGuire sayingthe city should not release the 2013 Tradewinddata until it was submitted to the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA).

According to theemails, Pellegrini was only allowed to view the unredacted report in McGuire's office and was not permitted to make a copy.On Dec. 4 2018, Pellegrinimade a photocopy ofthe unredacted report while McGuire wasn't in his office, and the information was released to the public a month later, on Feb. 6.

The inquiry continues Friday and is ongoing.