Hamilton council set to decide its next move on the buried Red Hill report

Hamilton city council will decide this week whether to ask for a judicial inquiry into the Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP).

And Lloyd Ferguson, a Hamilton city councillor who once headed the construction company that built the road, will be part of that vote.

After weeks of public concern and demand for answers, city council will meet behind closed doors Wednesday to hear from an outside lawyer about options for an investigation into traction concerns with the controversial roadway and how the city handled them.

That lawyer will advise whether council should call for a judicial inquiry, or some other form of external investigation, into how a November 2013 report raising issues about the highway's traction remained buried for six years.

Ferguson, who represents Ancaster, said he'll be part of that vote. He worked for Dufferin Construction for 32 years, and managed the company for 13 of those. But he retired in 2006, he said, before the highway was paved. He'd also sold all his shares by then, he said.

"Just for the record, I did write to the integrity commissioner," Ferguson said. And the opinion is that he can vote Wednesday.

The 2013 report from Tradewind Scientific says on some areas of the highway, the pavement traction fell below UK safety standards. The report sat in a locked folder on the city's network for years. Council only found out about it in February.

Since about 2015, families of people who died on the road called for increased safety measures, including around the highway's slipperiness. In the last five years, council has spent millions on safety improvements, but didn't know about the Tradewind report.

Since the report was revealed, the city has bumped up a planned repaving of the road. It's also reduced the speed limit from 90 km/h to 80 from Green Hill to the QEW.

More questions than answers

The city's auditor is investigating what happened with the report, but some have pushed for an outside review too. Andrea Horwath, Ontario NDP leader and Hamilton Centre MPP, is among them. 

"We can't turn back time," she said in February, "but answers might help families devastated by parkway crashes to get the peace and closure they deserve."

Wednesday will determine what an outside review would look like.

Some councillors already know what they want to see.

Brad Clark, Ward 9 (upper Stoney Creek) councillor, says a judicial inquiry can assign blame, or indicate if there's malfeasance or wrongdoing. And unlike some other processes, it would be public.

Clark said in a media release this week that he "continues to advocate for a judicial investigation."

"We have a responsibility and an obligation to find out who knew, what did they know, when did they know, what did they do about it, who did they tell, why didn't they share it with the city council and what role, if any, did the suppression of the report play in the accidents along that stretch of roadway," he said.

Ferguson doesn't know how he'll vote yet. His past job gives him some insight, but he still has more questions than answers.

Asphalt was 'the best available product at the time'

The pavement material used in 2007 was "the best available product at the time," he said. 

Canada doesn't have standards for skid resistance, he said. But he also wonders if UK safety standards are a good measurement given Canada's climate.

"I'm not going to form any opinion until I hear from a legal expert," he said. And "why are my colleagues taking an opinion on this when they haven't heard from the expert?"

In an email to Clark on Friday, Mayor Fred Eisenberger seemed to take a neutral stance too.

"I look forward to hearing the expert advice we all asked for this coming Wednesday," he wrote.

The Wednesday city council meeting doesn't have a set start time, but it'll happen after a 9:30 p.m. general issues committee meeting.