The Collingwood Judicial inquiry costs are approaching the $2.5 million mark and may get as high as $4 million by the time it wraps up.
Depending on council’s decision tonight, some of the proceeds from the most recent Collus sale may end up paying for the inquiry into the previous 50 per cent share sale of Collus to PowerStream in 2012.
This information is going to council for tonight’s meeting (June 10) in a staff report from Treasurer Marjory Leonard.
Initial estimates put the cost of the Collingwood Judicial Inquiry around $1.6 million.
“Our initial costing assumptions were based on a nine-month inquiry with approximately eight weeks of investigative work and eight weeks of actual hearings,” states the report.
In fact, the inquiry has been divided into three phases with investigative work and hearings for all three phases. Hearings for the first phase began on April 15 and are scheduled to end by June 28. Hearings for phase two are set to begin in September.
“In this particular situation, the town has no control over the expenditures and we have no idea what potential bills are out there,” states Leonard’s report. “To date, we have processed and paid a total of $2,336,417, which is $736,417 over our upper budget estimate of $1,600,000.”
Those figures don’t account for some costs accrued in May during the month of hearings.
So far, the town has been funding the inquiry through the Working Capital Reserve, which is a fund typically used as contingency funding for urgent, unforeseen expenses, temporary cash shortfalls, unpredictable one-time expenditures and for business continuity in the event of a disaster.
The fund is kept at $2.5 million. This year, $1.5 million of that was directed to the 2019 judicial inquiry costs. That’s been spent already this year.
Attached to Leonard’s report is a chart showing variance in budgeted and actual expenditures for the judicial inquiry.
The highest costs have been commission counsel ($703,046), document management (previously unbudgeted, and actual cost at $479,994), investigative and policy staff ($270,318), a forensic accountant ($173,363), and counsel for the town ($241,586).
The town has spent $85,841 on counsel for parties with approved funding, which includes former Mayor Sandra Cooper and former Collus Chief Financial Officer Tim Fryer. Fryer is representing himself in the proceedings and Cooper is being represented by lawyer George Marron.
Staff are recommending council authorize an increase of $3 million in the 2019 budget, and allow staff to use asset sale proceeds to fund the shortfall in the funding of the judicial inquiry. Council meets tonight at 5 p.m. in the town hall council chambers.
The inquiry hearings continue today with cross-examination of Ed Houghton, the former president and CEO of Collus. The hearing begins at 10 a.m. at town hall council chambers. Hearings continue every day this week beginning at 9 a.m.
