The Collingwood Judicial Inquiry hearings resume on Wednesday with testimony from a former inquiry commissioner beginning a four-day stretch of expert witnesses.
Denise Bellamy will be the first on the witness stand on Nov. 27 at 10 a.m.
Bellamy is a retired judge of the Superior Court of Ontario and was commissioner of two inquiries: the Toronto Computer Leasing Inquiry and the Toronto External Contracts Inquiry.
Her four-volume report released in 2005 included 244 recommendations related to ethics, governance, lobbying, and procurement.
In the book Public Inquiries in Canada: Law and Practice, Bellamy penned a chapter called How to Run a Public Inquiry.
In it, she states experts have different roles based on the inquiry.
“Sometimes, the experts testify at the inquiry about their professional knowledge in a particular subject area,” she states in the book. “Sometimes they are retained to educate the commissioner and commission counsel about the subject matter of the inquiry itself.”
While she was commissioner in the two Toronto inquiries, she said she hired experts such as an accountant and a former senior deputy minister in the Ontario Government.
Following Bellamy’s testimony, there will be a panel including John Fleming, Anna Kinastowski, and Greg Levine on Wednesday, Nov. 27 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. giving their expert testimony on roles and responsibility in municipal government.
All three panel members have served as integrity commissioners or city solicitors.
On Thursday, Nov. 28, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. there will be a panel of experts on conflict of interest including Valerie Jepson, Rick O’Connor, and David Wake. Jepson worked as counsel to the integrity commissioner of Ontario, O’Connor co-authored A Practical Guide to Ontario’s Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, and Wake was appointed as the Ontario Integrity Commissioner in 2016.
On Friday, Nov. 29, there will be both a municipal boards and corporations panel (from 10 a.m. to noon) and a procurement expert panel (2 p.m. to 4 p.m.).
The hearings wrap up on Monday with an expert panel on lobbying from 10 a.m. to noon.
The Collingwood Judicial Inquiry was called by council to look into the 50 per cent share sale of Collingwood’s utility services corporation (COLLUS) to PowerStream in 2012 and also to investigate the allocation of the proceeds from that transaction, including fees and benefits paid to anyone in relation to the sale transaction and the building of the recreational facilities at Central Park and Heritage Park.
The result of the inquiry is policy-driven only, as an inquiry is not a trial.
Associate Chief Justice Frank Marrocco has stated on a few occasions an inquiry is different from a trial, and the inquiry cannot lay any criminal charges.
“Judicial inquiries are a way for governments to examine issues and problems outside the regular legislative process,” states the Collingwood Inquiry website. “Public inquiries can help develop public policy and make recommendations that will serve the public in the future.”
The hearings coming up this week are the final stage of hearings for the Collingwood Judicial Inquiry. Following this, Marrocco will work on his report, and said he expects to release it by the end of Feburary.
You will be able to watch the hearings this week in person at the town hall council chambers, livestreamed online via RogersTV, or on TV on the local Rogers channel.
