A Cornwall, Ont., sex-abuse inquiry that has been plagued with delays for more than 2½ years should finish hearing from witnesses by the end of this year, says its commissioner.

The inquiry, which is looking into how authorities responded to a rash of allegations that children were being abused in Cornwall starting in the late 1950s and continuing for decades, will conclude its testimony in December "or at the very latest, January," Justice Normand Glaude predicted Friday.

Glaude said witnesses from the Ministry of the Attorney General are the last institutional witnesses scheduled at the Cornwall Public Inquiry.

The anticipated end of hearings means the commission will take written and oral submissions containing suggestions for how institutions can better respond to allegations of abuse starting February and March of next year, Glaude said.

The inquiry has already longer than expected, with costs growing over time. As of the end of the inquiry's fiscal year in March, the commission estimated the inquiry had cost $16.1 million so far.

In January, Glaude predicted testimony would be complete by Aug. 1.

But he made no apologies for the extra time the inquiry is taking.

"We came to do an important job on behalf of the public carefully, compassionately, and completely," he said.

Dallas Lee, a lawyer who represents nearly 50 men and women who said they were abused as children in the eastern Ontario community, said even Glaude's revised timeline is "very, very optimistic."

"Everybody wants to get through this, but at the same time everybody's making sure that we do it right and I think doing it right's going to take us past December," he said.

The inquiry opened on Feb. 13, 2006. As of Friday, more than 150 witnesses had testified.