The chair of the Niagara Region says he can not comment on a report in Niagara This Week that ties the recent termination of two regional directors to the Burgoyne Bridge build.
The report says the region's director of transportation services, Nick Palomba and director of water and wastewater services, Paul Smeltzer who were suspended last spring have been terminated.
Alan Caslin says he can not comment on either the firings or an audit into the skyrocketing cost of the bridge build.
Caslin would only say the Burgoyne Bridge build has been a challenge from the very beginning.
He points out there was a lot of learning on the part of regional staff.
Caslin adding we don't do a project of this magnitude very often and when we do we need to get better help than we had this time.
When the paper contacted the region's Communications associate director Matt Robinson about the terminations he hinted they are connected to the forensic audit into the bridge build.
Robinson wrote, " As you are aware, the reports and its contents remain a solicitor client privileged legal document at this time, so we cannot speak to its findings in any way."
But in an email to CKTB News, the region's Acting Associate Director of Communications Darrell Neufeld writes "As you can appreciate, we cannot speak to any personnel matters. Regarding the report in Niagara This Week, there was no intention to connect these employment matters with any findings arising from the audit report and the Region has not alleged cause for these employment cessations."