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Ask Bruce Karn what is keeping him busy these days and the senior legal counsel at construction giant EllisDon will say it is the pending changes to Ontario’s Construction Lien Act.

The Ontario government is significantly overhauling the 35-year-old legislation in two phases, he notes. The first phase is modernizing the legislation, which comes into effect on July 1. The second and more significant reform, however, will take place in October 2019.

Contractor debarment in construction contracting by public-sector entities is a hot topic in Ontario’s construction industry. Debarment is a mechanism used by public sector entities to prevent contractors from bidding for various reasons, including contractor performance. It is sometimes referred to as “blacklisting”. Such provisions have come under scrutiny, particularly when used to debar a contractor from bidding where the contractor has been engaged with litigation with the contracting entity. Various municipalities and other public sector entities have debarment provisions in their policies, procurement, by-laws, tendering documents, and/or contract provisions

Now that the Government of Canada has retaliated against unfair U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, the Canadian Coalition for Construction Steel is urging the Government to act cautiously before taking further action, including safeguards, which could severely disrupt the construction industry in Canada.

The new Oxford County Waste Management and Education Centre in Ontario is an example of sustainable construction and renewable energy generation. It is anticipated the building will receive Zero Net Energy certification from the New Buildings Institute (NBI) after one year of monitoring.

Measures to protect the Canadian and American steel markets from cheap foreign steel may hurt the Canadian construction industry and raise the cost of home building, say two representatives from the Canadian steel construction industry.

As Nova Chemicals gears up for $2-billion in construction in St. Clair Township, the president of the Sarnia-Lambton Building and Construction Trades Council says its members are ready to supply the skilled workforce the project needs.

Nova has begun preparing the site of a new polyethylene plant to be built over the next three years on Rokeby Line, next to its Corunna plant where work is also planned to double its production.

The upcoming summer season has many people daydreaming of wandering around downtown Halifax shops, perhaps even sitting on patios with a frosty beverage or two.

It’s safe to say the majority of people aren’t including the sounds of relentless jackhammering or drilling in that picture, but for some downtown Halifax businesses, that scenario is a challenging reality.

Brazilian mining giant Vale is capitalizing on a nickel boom and moving forward with its underground mine at Voisey’s Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball announced Monday morning.

An overhaul of construction laws has the potential to reduce the number of payment disputes and speed up the dispute resolution process, lawyers say.

During the multi-stage transition process, it will be vital that lawyers keep track of the timeline for each tweak of the massive law to avoid professional liability, says Ted Betts, head of infrastructure and construction at Gowling WLG LLP in Toronto.

Read more at lawtimesnews.com

On July 1, 2018, the first round of amendments to the Ontario Construction Lien Act – including its new name, the Construction Act – will come into force.

Importantly, this first set of amendments does not include the two most substantial and perhaps, controversial, changes to the Act: (1) the introduction of a prompt payment scheme, and (2) the creation of a mandatory adjudication system for certain disputes. These changes, among others, will not come into force until October 1, 2019.

This post is meant to refresh readers on the amendments coming into force next month on July 1st. Separate posts will follow that will provide practical advice for owners, general contractors, and subcontractors on how to prepare for the new prompt payment and mandatory adjudication regimes before they come into force next year.