Red Hill Valley Parkway Judicial Inquiry Overview

City Progress on Recommendations

City staff began reviewing the Red Hill Valley Parkway Judicial Inquiry’s final report on November 29, 2023 and outlined recommended next steps for a City response to the Inquiry’s final report to Hamilton City Council on December 6, 2023.

Since the Tradewind Consultant's Report was discovered, the City has taken a number of steps to improve its document management systems and policies regarding information sharing and transparency, including:

The development and ongoing implementation of a Records and Information Management Policy.
The development and ongoing implementation of an Active Disclosure and Dissemination Policy, which makes clear how and when information such as consultant reports are to be made available to the public.
Development and implementation of a Council Staff Relationship policy.
Creation of materials and a training policy to improve project management activities, including regular reporting.
An improved tracking system for external consultant reports.

The City also created a temporary Chief Road Official position to improve operating procedures related to planning, design, construction, and maintenance operations for City roadways, including the Red Hill Valley Parkway and a Parkway Management Committee to ensure better information sharing and workplan alignment among City divisions.

A Quality Management System was also implemented in the Public Works Department to ensure staff meet or exceed regulatory standards.

The Red Hill Valley Parkway was also repaved in May and July 2019 and speed limits were reduced to 80km/hr on both sides of the Parkway between Dartnall Road and Greenhill Avenue.

Interdepartmental Working Group Action Plan

As recommended by Council on December 13, 2023, the City has created an interdepartmental working group that is responsible for developing, implementing and publicly reporting twice a year on a Red Hill Valley Parkway Judicial Inquiry action plan.

The action plan tracks the measures the City intends to put in place to address the recommendations from the report, and also identifies the steps the City has already taken since the report was discovered and brought to the attention of Hamilton City Council in 2019.

The Interdepartmental Working Group, chaired by Public Works, has driven notable progress in implementing the action plan through regular meetings and collaboration among City departments. The Working Group has identified 36 actionable items from the 36 recommendations in the Inquiry’s final report.

The action items are grouped into eight different categories:

Traffic Safety on the Red Hill Valley Parkways and Lincoln M Alexander Parkway
Delineating the Roles and Responsibilities of City Staff
The Culture within the Public Works Department
Information Sharing and Communication among Staff
Staff Reporting Obligations
Staff Communications with Media and Public
Consultant Engagements and Assignments
Staff Reports

Key Action Items - Year 1 Progress Update

Action Item	In Progress	Completed
Traffic Safety on the Red Hill Valley Parkways and Lincoln M Alexander Parkway	13	7
Delineating the Roles and Responsibilities of City Staff	2	0
The Culture within the Public Works Department	4	1
Information Sharing and Communication among Staff	2	0
Staff Reporting Obligations	1	0
Staff Communications with Media and Public	1	0
Consultant Engagements and Assignments	3	1
Staff Reports	1	0

In Progress for Completion in 2025

Successfully Implemented

Traffic Safety on the Red Hill Valley Parkways and Lincoln M Alexander Parkway

Field investigation/survey analysis to confirm geometry and grading between Greenhill Avenue to Queenston Road.
Creating and updating Standard Operating Procedures related to Traffic Safety including Friction, Fatal Injury Investigations and Red Hill Valley Parkway/Lincoln M Alexander Parkway Operation and Maintenance Plan.
Update Parkway Management Committee Terms of Reference.
Roadway safety training module for staff involved in planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance.
Communication and Change Management Strategy.
Create new Procedure for Formalizing Fatal Injury Investigations and Reporting.
Training on Roadway safety fundamentals to other Divisions.
Create new Procedures on Friction.
Correspondence and Confirmation with Ministry of Transportation on safety standards.
Adopt processes for a comprehensive traffic safety approach similar to the MTO to monitor and address traffic safety issues that arise on the RHVP.
Analysis of recommendations from the Peer Review by Ministry of Transportation.

Delineating the Roles and Responsibilities of City Staff

Update Public Works Project Management Standard Operating Procedure and Charter.
Administer Job Specific Code of Conduct Training- Relevant case studies will educate on collaboration and accountability between departments with overlapping responsibilities. To monitor efforts, training completion metrics will be monitored regularly.

The Culture within the Public Works Department

Career mobility and development discussions for Public Works.
Performance Accountability Training and creation of a Public Works Competence Procedure, to ensure that required competencies are effectively included in performance documents and middle management receive additional training on creating development plans centred around identified leadership competencies.
Employee Surveys for Public Works Leaders, to assess the extent to which Public Works leadership demonstrates collaboration, transparency, and accountability. The employee surveys will be administered in 2025, with results available in Q1 2026.

Information Sharing and Communication among Staff

Implementation an Electronic Documents and Records Management System including library for consultant documentation.
Updating of Public Works Off-boarding process to improve succession planning and sharing of institutional knowledge.

Staff’s Reporting Obligation

Updating Corporate policies such as the Code of Conduct and Staff Council Relationship policy to ensure communication of accurate and truthful information.

Staff Communications with Media and Public

City Wide Media Training- This training will include explicit guidelines for honest communication with the media and public, particularly on difficult issues.

Consultant Engagements and Assignments

Enhancements to Public Works procedures for Tracking and Sharing of Consultant reports, Project Management procedure.
Update Corporate Procurement Policy to include requirements around consultant assignments.
Update Code of Conduct Policy.

Traffic Safety on the Red Hill Valley Parkways and Lincoln M Alexander Parkway

City of Hamilton Annual Collision Reporting.
Parkway Management Committee with safety as a standing agenda item.
The appointment of a Chief Roads Official; subsequent merger of that role into the Director of Transportation.
Creation and roll-out of a Public Works Project Management procedure.
Creation of a Public Works Asset Responsibilities within the Right-of-Way procedure.
Creation of an Escarpment Access Closure Procedure.
Creation of an ongoing Network Screening List.

The Culture within the Public Works Department

Updates to the Public Works Departmental Training Procedure to reinforce the importance of Code of Conduct training completion.

Consultant Engagements and Assignments

Creation of a Tracking and Sharing Consultant Report Recommendations, and Actions - Public Works Standard Operating Procedure that clearly defines staff responsibilities when in receipt of consultant reports.

Date modified

March 25, 2025