Inquiry costs ballooning

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

Greg Peerenboom

Tuesday, November 28, 2006 - 10:00

Local News - The Cornwall Public Inquiry is costing city police triple the $750,000 originally set aside this year.

As of Sept. 30, the inquiry had cost the Cornwall Community Police Service about $1.5 million, detailed a third quarter report by Deputy Chief Danny Aikman.

And Aikman expects legal costs will remain at about $250,000 per month for the rest of the year - pushing the total for 2006 to about $2.25 million.

Aikman said those $250,000 monthly bills will likely continue to at least April, when costs will shrink down to $50,000 to $100,000.

Police board chair Phil Poirier said help is needed.

"(The city) won't be able to afford this unexpected burden - and next year there will be even more," Poirier said. "The (provincial) government should start to realize that - rumour has it - the (overall inquiry) cost could be as high as $40 to $50 million.

"It's a concern to a lot of people."

Attorney General spokesperson Brendan Crawley said he will look into the overall cost of the inquiry and the board's financial concerns concerning the city's share.

Ministry staff have said in the past it's not as simple as sending off invoices in the hopes of receiving a cheque in the mail.

Crawley said in May any party wishing to receive funding in order to cover the costs of taking part in the inquiry must go before the commission and make an application.

"The city would be subject to the (commission) guidelines," said Crawley.

In an interview with the Standard-Freeholder April 27, Attorney General Michael Bryant said the inquiry is entirely funded by the province and any costs incurred by any groups taking part in the commission should be submitted to his office.

Board commissioners were also shown invoices from legal retainer, Gowling Lafleur Henderson, which billed the board for more than $19,000 over two months.

Most of the cost was attributed to converting 280,000 pages of police information into a digital format at a cost of about $14,000. Another big expense was $3,375 for 22.5 hours of support work at $150 an hour.

Costs aren't completely out of the police board's hands.

Poirier, who chaired his last meeting, suggested earlier the new board should consider finding "surplus space" to hold the inquiry proceedings, which is costing about $20,000 at the Weave Shed.

One possible new site could be a room in the Bob Turner Arena.

The board will forward the inquiry issue to the new city council, which will be sworn in next month.

A second invoice from Avant Strategic Communications billed the board for $4,939 to "assist our preparation for the inquiry" including "inquiries from the media," Aikman said.