Work is paused at Hamilton’s west harbourfront as contractors await payments from the City of Hamilton.
Hamilton Waterfront Trust Executive Director Christian Wiley says the Trust is “behind in, paying our contractors” due to “late payments from the City of Hamilton.”
Wiley says the Trust owes contractors “a few hundreds of thousands of dollars” for work at Piers 5 and 6.
The 2018-2022 City Council made the HWT a middleman for paying contractors for City work on the Piers.
The HWT is granted a ten percent administrative fee for flowing through City of Hamilton funds. The arrangement enabled the Trust to continue operating despite financial losses in Trust operations.
Wiley says contractors have stopped working due to lack of payment.
“It would probably take a matter of weeks to finish this project, Wiley says. “Nothing really is going to move forward at this point until contractors are paid.”
“So our contractors don’t get paid until we pay them … we have to wait for the City to come through.”
The City of Hamilton is late processing payments due to the ongoing impact of its February 2024 cybersecurity failure.
Production Details v. 1.0.0 Published: October 15, 2024 Last updated: October 15, 2024 Author: Joey Coleman Update Record v. 1.0.0 original version