Hamilton's legal team expects to complete sifting through millions of documents relating to the Red Hill Valley Parkway by the end of June.

Eli Lederman, of Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin, who is the city’s counsel in the Red Hill Valley Parkway inquiry, told councillors on April 29 that his team has reviewed about 3 million documents and identified 30,000 of them relevant to the inquiry.

“That process has been a lengthy one, but a valuable one,” said Lederman.

He said officials are continuing to examine the documents taken from city officials’ files and it is expected the process will be wrapped up by the end of June.

“We still think there is a significant volume capture in the remaining drivers we are searching,” he said.

Officials have also conducted interviews with about 100 current or former city employees.

Meanwhile, the cost of the inquiry has jumped to $1.9 million, with the commissioner of the inquiry, Chief Justice of Ontario Herman J. Siegel, spending the bulk of the expense at $1.1 million. The city has spent $714,228.

In 2019 councillors approved spending $7 million for the inquiry, but there has been a concern expressed by legal officials the cost could reach past $10 million.

The inquiring was created in April 2019 to investigate the problems associated with a consultant’s report on the parkway. Siegel was appointed in May as the commissioner.

The inquiry is to investigate what happened when a 2013 Tradewind Scientific report and its findings were kept from councillors for about five years until late in 2018, and whether appropriate steps were taken to disclose the report.

The report was found, city officials said, in a locked computer folder after a new director of engineering was hired.

So far, the establishment of the inquiry personnel, collection of documents and interviewing witnesses are well underway. The commission has already created a process to allow members of the public to participate in the inquiry. But no hearing date has been scheduled.

The city is also facing at the same time as the inquiry is proceeding a $267-million class action lawsuit on behalf of the people who crashed on the parkway.

Information related to the inquiry is available at www.rhvpi.ca.